Off to Ireland

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Kirsty had to leave quite early this morning and was gone by the time most of us got up. After breakfast, Joshua and Benjamin said goodbye to Caleb and Leah, who were off to school with Stephen.

We had been weighing and repacking things last night to make sure we make the reduced weight limits on our RyanAir flight today. We now had a few bags - some things to be mailed, some for charity, and unused travel medication to take to the pharmacy for disposal so Evy and I headed off to the High Road to lighten our load. We couldn't find the Oxfam to donate the clothes and things, so we ended up giving it to a resale charity that helps cats. We were able to mail some things, as well as finding the pharmacy.

After lunch at the house, we said goodbye to Stephen who had been working in his office, and set the GPS for Luton airport. Just after leaving Cambridge, we came across the incredible field of Poppies again and stopped to take a photo of the sea of red flowers.

With a bit of trouble, we found the car rental company and took their shuttle to the airport. Our information from the company said that we would have to clear our passports with their document desk so we went off to look for that. It was a bit confusing as to where this desk was, but we went to the only RyanAir desk we could find.

The lady at the desk looked at our printed boarding passes and said that we had failed to fill in the passport details. Having spent considerable time putting all this information in and double checking it, I couldn't see how it had failed to end up on the boarding passes. As Ryan air charges a whopping $80 or so to reprint the boarding passes, I was panicked. All she could suggest was to wait until 5:30 when the ticket booth opened up.

The thought of paying so much to reprint the passes was terrible, and we found a computer to see if we could do it ourselves. Unfortunately there was no printer and it would not let us add the detail in any case. We returned to the counter to see if there was anyway for them to change it.

This time, there was a man at the counter who said he could change it easily and that this was a common problem with their system. He also said that I must have put in the info as I said or it would not have printed the boarding passes for me. Very much relieved, we got our documents stamped.

Due to weather at the Dublin airport, our flight was slightly delayed. The RyanAir flights are not assigned seating, but we had paid a bit more to board first, so we got to choose our seats on an almost empty aircraft. Ryan air planes are not unlike other company's, but the seats don't recline with makes it a bit uncomfortable, though ours was only a short flight. As we took off and rose above the clouds and into the sunshine, a rainbow appeared.

The flight is quite short, taking only an hour or so. We watched a beautiful sunset over the Irish sea before descending into Dublin.

With our bags coming off the plane quickly and a shuttle bus to our airport hotel, we had one of the easiest entrances into a new country yet. The hotel impressed Benjamin and Joshua with a huge lobby and a glass elevator to our floor. We have certainly seen a range of places.

After taking our stuff to our room, we returned to the hotel lounge and were able to buy some dinner before they finished food service at 10 pm. Back in our room, the internet doesn't seem to be working which is a pain as we need to book a place for tomorrow night.

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