Dublin: Arrival

After a lovely, 5.5hr red eye from Toronto (in Air Canada’s comfy premium economy during which Donny & I both slept only about 90 mins), we arrived on grand August day into Dublin—overcast, raining and 60°F.😕

Dear bro-in-law Dermot picked us up from the airport (met us in the terminal and everything!) and described it as, “barely rainin’…it wouldn’t even get ya wet if you were out golfing in it.” 😂 Reminded me of Seattleites…you have to become water repellant if you want to experience life outdoors at all.

He took us on an impromptu tour of Dublin city on the way to their house…along the River Liffey with its historic Customs House, modern Central Bank building, and Ha’penny Bridge (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha'penny_B…), near the Guinness factory (at one time, they only hired Protestants) and along the less traveled streets of South Dublin where gang wars used to wage with enough frequency that the Garda would put up road blocks to restrict the flow of traffic.

Arrived at Dermot & Gilly’s only a little bleary-eyed and easily curable with coffee, tea, sausage sandwiches (yesssss) and the usual “carry on” when a family gathers. Just hoping my ear for Irish accents kicks in after some sleep or I’ll just have to keep nodding and grinning along like an idiot.

For Mom: neighborhood photo is a nearby street of “semi-d(etached)’s” to show what the burbs look like here…we’d call them duplexes in the States only each unit is owned independently.Read more