Ijams 2009 European Trip

Notes from the May - June 2009
Tour of Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia and England

Our Monday morning May 18 journey to Europe began with a trip on the hotel shuttle to the Delta area of the San Francisco airport. We checked in with our bags being tagged for Dublin. Kenith asked a TSA security agent if her knitting needles were OK to bring on board and was told yes, "if you don't waive them around." We were offered soft drinks and cookies, meals were for sale.

Our flight on the Boing 767-400 was full as we sat in the next to last row in the middle section. Four hours later, we landed at Atlanta Hartsfield airport. We walked to the international terminal with enough time and then boarded another full 767-400ER airplane at 9 PM. A very nice fellow offered to trade seats with me so I could sit next to Kenith (window and aisle). We had a very nice chicken dinner with complementary wine early in this flight and a continental breakfast just before we landed.

We were flying at 35,000 feet at about 650 mph in New Brunswick, Canada, with a 120 mph tail wind, when an elderly passenger required medical attention. One of the passengers was an EMT and attended the man while the aircraft turned around and headed for Bangor, Maine. He was off-loaded, we took on more fuel and we resumed our passage to Ireland. We landed almost 2 hours late, at 11:45 AM, but as it worked out, with little consequence.

We went through passport control, reclaimed our luggage, passed through customs, hit the ATM, bought Heritage passes and took the Airlink bus into the Dublin central bus station in time for us to catch the 1:30 PM National bus to Kilkenny, our first stop. We checked in to the Berkeley House B & B, cleaned up a little and headed out in the rain for a walk around town. We bought two bottles of wine at the Dunnes supermarket and ended this long day with two pints of locally brewed Smithwick Ale and two bowls of an excellent Irish Stew at Kysteler's Inn.