Ireland, 2010

December 7, 2010

Paris -> Dublin

I never would have imagined how exhausting sitting in a chair for 10 hours would be. Tuesday starts with us still on the flight to Paris.
The plane was equipped with seat-back entertainment systems, with on-demand movies, music, tv episodes, and games. We watched a couple of
movies, played some games (solitaire and Mah Jongg), read books for a couple of hours, slept a while, and were still 2 hours out of Paris.
Paris was a bunch of surprises. It was very cold there, and there were patches of snow on the ground. They parked the plane on the tarmac somewhere out
on the South 40 and bussed us to the terminal - except when we got off the plane, there was no bus. We had to stand out there for about 10 minutes before
the bus came, followed by a 10 minute ride to the terminal.
We had enough time to spend about 5 minutes browsing a gift shop on our way to the gate, arriving just as they started loading us onto another bus for the
ride out to the next plane. Strangely, we had to go through another security/xray checkpoint before we could go to our gate, even though we had arrived on
an international flight, and didn't leave the secure area of the airport.
The flight to Dublin was uneventful, save for the fact that we arrived to find 4 inches of snow on the ground. Our cab driver told us that they have gotten
something like 22 inches of snow since November 1st - more snow than they have gotten in the last 50 years.
One of our bags was apparently so fond of Paris that it decided to take a later flight. They say they will deliver it to the hotel as soon as it shows up.

We took a taxi from the airport into downtown Dublin - they really do drive on the wrong side of the road here - and it really is freaky! We are now all
checked into our room, and trying to decide whether it is worth trying to do some sightseeing this afternoon before it gets dark, or just get to bed early
and try to start tomorrow refreshed.


Our first view of Europe. We aren't sure which city in England this is, but it meant that we had survived the Atlantic crossing!		Charles DeGaulle airport, in Paris

A Prada store - good thing we didn't have much time!	Kind of looks like the guy in the hat is getting the Five Finger Discount!	Our plane for the flight to Dublin

Our first view of Ireland	and it's covered with snow!	Yep, driving on the wrong side! Note the driver's authentic Irish name!

	According to our driver, Bill Clinton once drank a pint of beer at Fagan's Pub	Each of the doors is a different color...

Still driving on the wrong side of the road!