Departing the USA
We departed the USA having one scheduled layover. Grateful that we were quickly able to rebook our flight changed due to severe thunderstorms, we knew that there would be a very, very short layover for our flight to Dublin. Once in Philadelphia, we were glad to have packed lightly per Rick's suggestion and only had our carry-on suitcases along with one personal item apiece. We ran as quickly as possible across the airport, into the international terminal, and onto our flight along with several others who we learned were on our previous flight as well. Needless to say, our concerns about not getting enough steps in that day were a moot point and we enjoyed our flight to Ireland with no further issues. While we were nervous about making the tour on time, we had planned a extra 2 days to acclimate to the new time zone. Due to not checking luggage, we all voiced gratitude that we did not have to worry about our belongings not making it onto the flight with us.
Once we arrived, we quickly went through immigration and customs. A quick bus ride (purchase your ticket ahead of time for relative ease) took us to our hotel at the heart of Dublin. As always, Rick arranges for us to stay in the heart of the city, near points of interest. We planned to stay up the first day as we arrived in the morning, so we
Corleck Hill, Co. Cavan, 1st-2nd Century AD National Museum of Ireland, Archeology Dublin, Ireland
checked into the hotel (where my mom was able to wave at me from theirroom) and headed over to the National Museum of Ireland. Though the National Gallery was lovely, we definitely preferred the Archeology building all the more because of one of the curates who blessed us with an hour's personal tour of the treasury room where we saw some incredibly mastery (see below). The tea shop was a nice place to relax, obtain some caffeine to keep us awake, and refresh ourselves as our long day continued.
I then treated us all to the Traditional Irish Music Pub Crawl during which our two guides not only entertained us with music, but were wonderful story tellers as well.
We found the city relatively easy to navigate. Within the first day, we had our sense of direction and departed on our second pre-tour day to tour St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Guinness storehouse, and then met up with our tour group for the first time. Our tour guide, Susie Millar, was lovely from the start with her gentle Irish lilt and knowledge of Ireland.
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