I think it will be ok

Long travel day yesterday. Get to Heathrow, where I have a six hour layover. Find the United Club, to which I have passes due to my credit card just renewing.

But they won't let me in because I came on British Airways, not United. I pointed out that is ****ing awful; the club entry and flying should be separate.

Anyway, kicked around until the flight to Shannon. There's a hotel right at the airport, stayed there. Cold, blustery with rain, so didn't walk too far down the road. Came back went to the bar for something to eat and a couple beers. In bed about 8:30, slept a long time.

Now off to the rental car, see if I can navigate Ireland. Heading toward Dingle today, I'll go slow & keep left. I hope.

Well, the day started out pretty good.

In bed early, slept pretty late. Walked over and got the rental car and took off to drive around the Dingle peninsula. Kind of rainy and crappy all morning. Here's what Dingle town looks like in the rain:



Got there about noon, so lunch was in town. Dingle reminds me of Usushaia, Argentina: both kind of tourist towns in (on the day I'm there) in wet, cool ports).

Anyway, after noon, drove out the peninsula. Things cleared up a bit. Ireland really has some great scenery. I don't think I captured it.











Drove back to Dingle town about 14:30. I think I should stop somewhere late afternoon-ish each evening as I don't have reservations. Looking on the map, Killarney is about an hour away.

Glad the car has GPS, really helped knowing where to turn. Same reason I got automatic, one less thing for me to have to manage while watching traffic.

Those who've been to Ireland know even the highways are pretty narrow (BY US standards), and have virtually no shoulder. Those who've met me IRL also know I have no depth perception.

At one point along the drive, some overhanging bushes scraped the passenger side. I remember thinking, "I hope that's not too bad. Well, I took out total insurance coverage."

Get to Killarney, find a spot to park, and walk on their High Street to see if there are hotels available. Happened to spot a travel agency, asked them if they know where I should look. Just down the intersecting street is a hotel.

Walk down there, check into things. Ask Vance where I should park, he gives me directions to their car park. Since I'm on a one way street, and it's behind me, he shows me how to go around, and mentions that it's a very narrow lane to get back there. I should've known right then to ask for other options.

Turn into there, manage to bang the passenger side on the building. Wasn't too bad, the front quarter panel a bit dented, but car still operational. Get in there, and there's only one spot open, but the car in the spot next to it is overlapping. Also, this spot is the first one after the gate, there's no way I can turn the car (Kia Optima) in there.

Anyway, get Vance, he rings the guy to move his car, I still can't get in there. At this point I jump in and the key won't turn at all. Car's in Park, seems ok, but now I've got the entrance blocked. Fortunately, Vance knew to just turn the wheel a bit to unlock the ignition.

So I ask him what else can we do? He tells me they have a sister property just a few blocks away with an open-air car park. Gives me directions, and he calls to let them know I'll be leaving the car up there so they won't tow it.

Naturally, bang the passenger side rear door on the way out.

Of course, had I thought about it, I should've stopped him at "down the narrow lane" and got this place earlier.

Even though the car's still operational, I figured I'd better call Hertz so it's not a huge surprise when I return it. The guy I talked to didn't seem too worried--"when you return it, the agent will get a report." He also verified I'm covered.

I didn't think to get his name or an incident number so when they try to **** me later, I can say "well, I got told it would be covered."

Now I think I'll go drink some beer., Grrr.

Last night, wandered up & down Killarney's high street, looking for some Irish music. Had several beers, finally found some at a bar around the corner.

When I walked in, I noticed a woman with a hoodie that said, "Hayward, WI". This is about an hour from my hometown, so asked her about the connection. Talked with her & her husband for a few minutes about how terrible Superior is, then listened to the group.

Stumbled back to the hotel. Early morning, several drunk people came through the hallways as they came back and work me up. That combined with too many beers meant I was kind of hungover today.

Drove over to Waterford in a constant pissing rain. Just bleah. When I got here, at least it wasn't raining, but still cold & blustery, Found a hotel room, and walked down to Waterford Crystal, intending to take a tour and see if I could pick up something for my aunt's birthday which is next week.

Closed as of yesterday til the 29th. Ireland is pretty much closed. Hotels, restaurants, bars open, but everything else pretty much closed.

So, I'm going to just hang out, maybe go to a pub if I feel up to it later. Have one more full day in the country, then to Dublin the day after.

Glad you are enjoying your travels thread It might be an optimal time right now given that, you know, not many are

I got a weekend getaway myself next week (in a remote cabin though) and then a longer one in April (in the Andes, but within Argentina), which I will assess in due time... Enjoy friend

Thanks, Dubnjoy. The flights had empty seats next to me, so that was nice. Wondering if return will be similar or if everyone on continent will be flowing through LHR.

Will your adventure be in Bariloche? I think both Top Gear & Bourdain did shows there that might be fun for you to check.

Be well, be safe.

It seems as if Trump is just about to announce travel restrictions on UK and Ireland as well :

"“We’re looking at it very seriously because they have had a little bit of activity unfortunately so we are going to be looking at that, actually we already have looked at it and that is going to be announced,” Trump said during a press conference with his coronavirus task force at the White House this afternoon."


Nice, I will check it out Yup, Bariloche, but we will see how things pan out over here... L feels concerned about potentially catching the virus (she has preexisting health issues), so we will see in due time... I am all for travelling and taking necessary precautions, but if she cannot relax in the process, it kind of defies the purpose of leaving...

edit : "Following Trump's remarks, Vice President Mike Pence said all travel from the United Kingdom and Ireland has been suspended, effective midnight on Monday."

Thanks for the update. I saw that at dinner. Called my travel agent, apparently they're letting citizens of USA#n back in (because, as we know, only foreign people can transmit illness. Ironically, I watched the final episode of Veep on the way over, which is eerily predictive of this).

Just talked to my travel agent to get her advice. Due to the above, and that I'm coming back Thursday, I should just stay on course. The return might get diverted. Apparently only certain airports are allowed, so I might get rerouted through JFK then on to Denver or something. So there may be something there to deal with, but she thinks I'll get back.

Ah well, part of travel is misadventures too. Hopefully I can persevere enough to get home.

Since I'm in the south of Ireland, I probably should look into alternative travel. I hear good things about transatlantic ships leaving Cork this time of year.

From Waterford, headed up to Kilkenny, only because a) It's a name I'd heard before and b) reminds me of South Park.

Kind of cool out yet, and nothing much open on Sunday AM. Just kicked around for a while. Saw their castle from the outside:



Garick had told me about the oldest pub in Ireland, so I wandered up to Athone:



Where I found a sign saying they're closed from the 15th on until further notice.

Well, ok, let's go see the Cliffs of Moher. Some nice landscape along the way:



On the way, I go through a little town that seems nice, and see some hotels. I'll find it on the way back.

Get to the cliffs and the wind is howling. A couple of gusts were enough to push me along as I'm walking. Really quite unpleasant. Well, that's o.k., I'll just go back to town and try again in the morning.

Naturally, I took a wrong turn somewhere in there and couldn't find it. Ended up driving all the way back to Shannon, staying in the same hotel where I started this odyssey.

Anyway, here's a couple pics of the cliffs. They really are quite stunning.

Got to talking to a British guy at the hotel bra last night named Keith. He flies for a contractor for FedEx, and was telling me stories of some things he'd experienced flying in previous jobs. Quite a few of these were in places I'm also familiar with. We probably were able to kill 3 hours bsing.

In no hurry, got up late this am and started plugging over to Dublin from Shannon. Saw this along the motorway:



Apparently his ancestry can be traced to a village near that spot, so they honored him with...a service area.

Still, probably better than what the current guy is going to get. Not sure if Ireland is generally liberal, or the papers I've seen happen to be, but columnists in those papers write about him in pretty savage terms. Not just about the coronavirus, it's more on the order of "here's another thing this administration has totally ****ed up."

Anyway, got to Dublin, found hotel.



It's pretty nice. Train station across the street, hoping that can take me to airport land in a couple days. Checked in, left bags, dropped the rental car at Hertz. The guy wasn't disturbed at all by the damage (I had insurance, and I"m pretty sure it's just cosmetic). He kind of said, "those things happen, don't worry about it," as we were doing the report.

Walked back to the hotel, then went out for what turned out to be a pretty long and fruitless walk. Headed over here:



Walked down to the tour area only to find this:



which I expected, but was still disappointing. Also that they didn't post this out by the main way in, I walked probably close to a mile before getting the official word.

Golddog sad.

Still, could be worse. Wandered back toward the hotel, which took me through Temple Bar, which is Dublin's nightlife area.



A few things like souvenir shops were still open. I bet they're taking a licking on all the tacky St. Patrick's Day junk they expected to sell by tomorrow. Even The Temple Bar was closed.



If you look off to the right, St. Patrick made an appearance anyway.

Found my way back to the hotel, stopping for a quick bite along the way. Seems like the only things open are small independent, generally fast food, restaurants. I wonder if they can't afford to close up.

So things will probably be pretty quiet for the time remaining. Hopefully the weather turns better, at least would be nice to walk along the riverside if nothing else.

Lacking anything better to do, I took a walk this morning back down by the river. Here's Dublin City Hall:



and again through the Temple Bar area. Some people are about, but this town is mostly empty.

Back to room, went for another walk in the opposite direction. Came across Groke Park, which I think is for rugby?



but mostly just wandered around. Got close the the hotel again, had lunch, and here I am.

Tip for anyone beginning to travel: get used to remembering landmarks and sun position, and intentionally go wander sometimes. Find great stuff in the back ways.

For example, on the later one this morning, I went northwest. I knew on returning if I just headed southeast, I'd eventually hit the river or the train tracks, either one of which I could use to get back to familiar ground.

While it didn't work out for me in terms of finding anything interesting this time, in the past that's been some of the good stories about meeting some native at some place a tourist wouldn't normally go.

Went for quite a long walk today. Started down the north bank of the River Liffey, and came across the Irish famine memorial.



Went as far as Samuel Beckett's bridge



This old ship was parked in there. Of course, no tours now.



Customs House is just down by the river a couple blocks from my hotel, so a good landmark when out wandering.



Wandering along, saw this pub (closed of course) with an oddly appropriate name



Then went past Trinity College. From there, wandered back into Temple Bar. There is some activity. Not packed, I"m sure nothing compared to a normal year, but also not dead.

On the way back, went north for a while and came upon a statue of James Joyce, author of Ulysses



Not sure if I'm going to go back out there tonight, or just hang out at the hotel.

I've moved out toward the Dublin airport.

My original thinking was that I'd drink too much during St. Patrick's Day, and had a morning flight, so I'd take one day at a hotel by the airport to recover and have an easier start to the trip.

Anyway, this morning I checked the BA flight LHR->DEN. It was cancelled the last two days, but still on for tomorrow. I'm pretty sure DEN isn't one of the magic airports that can accept flight from Europe, and tomorrow's will be cancelled too.

So,while at the airport, I figured I'd get the return rearranged rather than trying to work in a mad dash at the last minute tomorrow.

The lady at the BA desk said the flight hasn't been cancelled yet, so she can't do anything. Also, she called somebody to double-check and asked in Denver was "on the list", and got a positive response.

I can find nothing to confirm that Denver's open for European flights. TSA's website indicates 13 airports, none of which is DEN.

Online checkin starts in 21 minutes, maybe that will expose something. BA person said they'd reroute me if necessary, it just frustrates me that they can't be proactive when they know tomorrow's flight will be cancelled.

Well, I'll just show up about 6 for a 9 am flight tomorrow, and deal with it as best I can.

After lunch, I got a message that the BA flight was cancelled. No ****. If USA#n isn't allowing foreign flights to airport X, you don't have to wait until the day before to cancel.

Anyway, since the hotel has a shuttle all the time, back to the airport to talk to BA.

New BA person told me they couldn't do anything for me, since I'd booked with Orbitz.

WTF? How does it matter how I bought the ticket? I've got a contract with you to take from the Heathrow to Denver. IDGAF if you cancelled that flight, or the reasons for it. Suggest solutions to the problem.

Back to the hotel, call Orbitz. What a goat ****. Waited 45 minutes to connect. That's perfectly understandable, I'm sure they're getting buried. They don't provide any feedback to verify that you're still connected or are moving along--just a dead line. ****ing terrible.

Once I get to an agent, I explain the situation and tell her I need help rerouting. She looks a while, and tells me that British Airways is not flying tomorrow. Wait, what?

I get on orbitz.com and find ways to get back in about 10 seconds. I explain to her that I don't care about going through Heathrow or flying BA at all. I just need help. They're supposed to be the travel experts.

She goes away for several more minutes, and tells me that BA isn't flying at all until the 22nd.

At this point, I tell her she's either FOS or incompetent, as I'm looking at their website and see flights home.

She bumbles around some more. I ask how it's even possible that I can find routes home in seconds using their own website, and it's taking her ~10 minutes to **** around and come back with, "there are no flights available".

Anyway, while she's ****ing around, I booked a return on united.com and told her to just give me a refund for whatever's due, because I'm tired of dealing with her.

After that, went back to the airport, hoping to have someone at the united desk double-check my work, and find out when they want me to show up.

Naturally, the united desks were all closed at 17:30. I used the kiosk to go a couple steps down the check-in path, and their system found my confirmation #, so I feel pretty good about that.

Back to the hotel, was eventually able to check in online on united.com. Their third-party 'scan your passport' application sucks ass, but other than that, got through, got a boarding pass on line.

Left 4:40 in Newark to get through customs etc. Hopefully that's enough. If not, I might have some more rescheduling hassles, but getting back in USA#n should be most of the problem.

@Dublin airport. Board in a few minutes.

On the plus side, customs & immigration handled here, but that means my layover in Newark is useless.

Ah well, I'll convert euros back, get something to eat, etc.

As it turns out, the earlier flight to Denver got canceled. There's a plane at the gate, hopefully that means we're ready to go in a few hours.

The CDC checks don't seem very thorough. Give you a form to fill out

• Have you been to Iran, China, Schengen
• Do you feel ok?
• contact info

Then when you get off, they scan your forehead. I got a good to go, not sure what they're doing with people who fail.

Naturally, since I have a four-hour layover, the gate for Denver is right next to where we came in.

Hopefully home tonight. Now figuring out getting home from DIA.

Ok, some pluses:

Dry skin pretty well cleared up being somewhere there's actually water in the air.

I seem to be less allergic to Ireland.

I have great neighbors to help with the "last mile" tonight (snowy/cold in Denver)

If things get sideways and I have to drive home, I understand Newark is a pretty easy place to steal a car.

Oh yeah, another positive I forgot to mention was the people of Ireland. Unfailingly friendly and helpful, even in a tough time.

On the way in, the pilot lets us know that there's turbulence (very common for Denver), and it will be uncomfortable. Just a few shimmies, though, they did a great job.

After landing and taxiing, we're sitting between the concourses for a few minutes...10...15...the pilot lets us know that there's a plane at our gate, and they're working on getting it going. After 20 minutes, the engine fires up, and he tells us we're going to a different gate.

So, #1: how the **** do they not know and prepare for this in advance? It's not as if we just dropped out of the sky unexpectedly.

So we drive along and sit on the taxiway for 5...10....15 minutes. The pilot announces they're trying to get a ground crew over there. After 20 minutes, we pull up.

So, #2: how the **** is "having a ground crew" not part of the gate change procedure. Seems as if that should be #2 on the checklist, right after "locate suitable empty gate."

Engine shut down, everyone stands up. 5 minutes...10....the pilot announces that they can't get the jetway over to the plane--they've got about another foot. There was wet snow that day, probably slipping on the icy surface I suppose. After 20 minutes, the doors open.

All the while, I'm texting with the neighbor who's going to pick me up from the bus stop. At some point in there, she tells me power just went out, she won't be able to get out of the garage. I tell her not to worry, I'll figure it out.

Off to claim my bag. See on the arrivals board we're at carousel 14. Wait, wait, wait. After a while, our flight disappears from the carousel's board. Go back to the main arrivals board, see we're not on there either.

go over to the people working the United baggage claim desk to ask what that means, get told that the city controls the boards, they don't know either. Have one of them scan my receipt, they are able to tell me the plane hasn't been unloaded yet.

WTF? We've been parked 30 minutes at this point.

While waiting, neighbor tells me power's back on, so she can come get me. We'd agreed on an 11:00 PM deadline, as she needed to go to work in the morning. I'd been checking RTD's website and saw they're saying SkyRide running a 30 minute delay. Told her not to worry, I had an alternate plan.

Finally the bag appears about 9:50. Landed 7:30. Denver screwed the pooch operationally on this night.

Anticipating an unpleasant evening waiting for transfers to local busses, then a mile or so walk through ~6" of wet slush, I opened my bag and put on the one still-clean pair of socks, couple extra shirts, and some nylon pants to try to bundle up for this.

Then, finally something goes right! SkyRode shows up on time, gets me to the main stop just before 11, so early enough neighbor can get me. Jump in a nice warm car, then trundle up the driveway and into the house.

Of course, I'm pretty wound up by today's events, so I stay up late (for me) having a couple beers and unpacking. Get to bed ~midnight.

Now back to normalish, except I'll isolate as best I can for the next two weeks. Need a haircut, but that will have to wait.

While on this trip, I heard from my travel agent that Kentucky Derby is moved to September. I assume WSOP will cancel/delay, so not sure when my next trip will be.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanie_Johnston

That ship you saw is the Jeanie Johnston. One of the biggest wastes of money the Irish government was every involved in.


They're around 4 million euros deep into lol. Hope you enjoyed it. Kerry probably my favorite county for scenery - pretty mountainous there!

fragglerock,

Welcome to the thread!

Thanks for your post. I just saw the ship, by the time I arrived in Dublin everything closed up.

I found all of Ireland quite scenic, but most days had cloudy/windy/wettish weather, so not so good for pictures.

Coming soon to a town near you*

I've decided to try retirement out.

Planning to take off over the weekend or next week for a camping trip. Seems like that's opening up, and should be pretty distanced from others.

No particular destination. I'm tentatively thinking I'll head toward my hometown (NW WI) to see people for a few days, but indirectly both directions.

I don't think I'll be a traveler like chopstick or dubnjoy, but should be able to be more active in that area now.

Or, maybe I'll decide I don't like it and un-retire. We'll see.

If any 2p2ers read along and are near my ambling, feel free to PM if you'd like to go for a beer. I probably won't be super diligent about checking, but maybe it will work out.

*For some definitions of "soon" and "near"

All of my Denver cousins are planning a "social distancing" campout at Happy Jack in Wyoming the end of July. My bunch is probably going to go stay with my uncle in Laramie and day visit them. Maybe you'll end up camping nearby...

Enjoy your retirement! It can't be too bad as long as you stay busy.

Thanks, mark. If you're ever in Denver, give a shout.

Son of a friend getting married August 1 in Springfield, MO, so I won't see you in Wyoming. Have a good time, it's quite nice up there.

Yeah, we get up to Laramie several times a year. Love it there and up in the Snowies. My uncle's retired from the Fish and Wildlife Service and still does contract/research work for them tagging Golden Eagles with gps trackers. It's really an incredible time going out with him. Even when we don't catch anything, just being out in the middle of nowhere is great.

mark,

If you're looking for something to do from Laramie, the drive to Encampment, WY (and then continuing west) is real nice. There's a nice campground along the river there.

Just beware of camping under the cottonwoods--they dripped a lot of sap on my truck. Thick enough that I had to drive to town mostly looking out the side window, until I could get to the gas station and clean that crap off.