July 15, 2025 - Go to Belfast

Title: July 15, 2025

Hike Info : Description

Hike Info:

Type:Plane, Bus

Description:

We left Dulles a little after midnight. Right from the get go, there is turbulence. For the first hour and more, they have the seat belt sign on. Periodically the pilots tell the attendants to take a seat. But the turbulence does not seem too bad.

I doze off, but it seems like I may sleep for 5-10 minutes before waking up. Around 2, they serve dinner. Steven and I have the chicken cacciatore or at least some version of it. Not sure that I wanted it then, but how this trip is going I think I should eat when I have the opportunity. Sherri has a pasta dish.

Then for the next several hours it is dozing off then waking up. At least we can go to the bathroom now. As daylight breaks, I was having a good slumber, having finally gotten comfortable, but Sherri needed to get out to go to the bathroom. That is the last of my sleep for this flight I think.

Sherri and Steven asleep

And now about 9:40am Dublin time, which will be the rest of the time which I will use until we get back on a plane on the 25th, it looks like we are getting served breakfast. Sort of an egg McMuffin with a tomato seasoned paste of some type. It was OK, but I would much rather have one of Sherri’s creations.

Not much to say about the remaining flight. We get in about an hour after the expected time at 11:45. But there is a difference between being on the ground and being able to leave the plane. The pilot taxi’s in, but then parks a ways from the terminal. The issue is that another plane is docked at the gate we are expected to use, but it is only a 15 minute wait. But after 10 minutes, the pilot comes on and says there is an additional problem-the plane at the gate has a mechanical problem and cannot move, they will find us a new gate. Another ten minutes later, the pilot comes on and says we have a new gate and will be moving there. Is this the end of our woes? No. When we get to the gate, the pilot says the computerized Skywalk is having a problem and will need to be hooked up manually. They are trying to find the person who will do this. They found the person after a little while, but the Dublin airport has a regulation that before hooking up the Skywalk, a person has to manually inspect the plane for damage. They need to find that person. After waiting on the ground for at least 45 minutes, everything is completed and we can exit the plane.

We are actually in Ireland

Is that the end of our struggles for the day? No, of course not. We go through the airport and we get to the place where they inspect our passport. After waiting in a Disneyland type line, we passed through the passport place without incident. She just wanted to know the purpose and length of stay. Then stamped our passport saying we are good to go. Now to pick up our bags. You would think after about half an hour after exiting, that our bags would be waiting for us. Nope. Shortly afterwards we hear it would be another 15 minutes to get our bags off of the plane. An Irish young lady and I talked-she was seated by me on the plane from San Francisco. We both wondered what else could happen. But eventually Steven got the bags off of the belt and we exited the airport.

We had hoped to take the Dublin Express to Belfast. But the 2:50 bus was full-I had thought about getting tickets for the 12:50 bus, but thought there were too many variables to safely make that connection. We thought about taking another line, but decided we would regroup inside of the terminal-it had started to rain hard.

We sat around, enjoying the stretched out feeling of not being cramped on a plane seat. Steven saw that there were openings on the 4:50 bus, so he booked it. We sort of rested for a couple of hours and ate the sandwiches I made for the flight.

We get on the Dublin Express bus and are off by 4:50pm. I thought this was a train. But the bus is pretty comfortable after the plane. Much more leg room. Sherri and Steven slept most of the way. I did nod off a few times. But mostly I was enjoying the landscape once we got out of the city. Around Fresno, the Spring is the best time to drive in the foothills with the flowers blooming and the grass is green. Here in the middle of July, the hills have an assortment of green, all laid out into neat rectangles, even up the hillsides. I could get used to enjoying this sight. The toll road we are traveling is smooth and it looks like all of the off ramps are in good condition. I do think I may need to learn a bit of the language as the signs are marked in both English and I think Gaelic.

The kids sleeping arrangement

When we get to Belfast, the bus lets us off on Upper Queen Street. There we see two smiling faces to greet us. Isn’t that why we traveled this far to be welcomed by those whom we love? Like our travel tales, they also have had a bit of a day as well. Andrea had booked us a place by the River Lagan last month through Bookings.com. For the past couple of days, she has been trying to get in touch with the owners. Today the owners reached out and said they are no longer renting. Frustrating when you think you have it set up. She found another place through Bookings. They arrived, but could not get in contact with the owner. After standing outside in the rain, they canceled the reservation-turns out the owner had his phone stolen and could not respond. Rachel found a hotel, Room2 at Hometel. This is only two blocks down from where we were dropped off by the Dublin Express.

Steven and Rachel's dinner

We get into our room about 7:30. The room is clean, basic and comfortable. We actually have two adjacent rooms,the parents room and the kids room. After resting for a few minutes we went downstairs to the hotel restaurant, Winnie's. The menu selection is pretty lean, burgers. But the burgers are very good, else we are very hungry. Makes you wonder, did we come all the way to Ireland, so we could have fancy burgers? Most of us opted for something safe: Blue Cheese burger. But there was a Cajun lentil burger and a cheese burger with potato wedges. We also got a fancy cheese plate. Andrea and Rachel were overjoyed to find out that they have an assortment of loose teas on demand.

Loose tea on demand

For doing “nothing” we are pretty tired and ready for bed. We hop into bed about 10 after taking a shower. Sherri is asleep before I am-that is unusual. Not saying that I am that far behind.

Gary's Dinner