Somewhere, over the Atlantic
We left Atlanta around Midnight on March 28th, it was dark outside, I was miserable because of my stupid COPD flare up.
I had a cloth mask in case anyone thought I was contagious (I wasn't), after takeoff, the coughing became embarrassing.
Then I had the thought "The air in this cabin must be dry as hell" so I borrowed some water from my cellmate... I mean seat mate, wet the mask, put it over my breathing holes and “Voila!" the coughing almost completely stopped.
We ate a bite, the lights got dim, and even in this smaller than a postage stamp seating space (thank you British Airways) I managed to sleep for a few hours.
Then the sun arose
First sight of the English coast
The English Countyside from the air
We made a steep bank to head towards Heathrow and ended up flying over several landmarks along the Thames
I think that is all a large part of where the Olympics were located in 2012
but I'm not sure
The Tower Bridge with the infamous Tower of London in the top
The London Eye carousel and Parlament with Big Ben
Let me back up a bit.
Some of you may know that I'm an almost 70 yr old man, with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), an artificial hip (replaced in 2019)... so to put it succinctly, I'm a physical wreck.
My niece graciously took me to Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta
!worldmappin 50.000 lat 20.000 long A short description d3scr
My ticket said American Airlines, but the flight was actually on British Airways, which is run (owned?) by AA.
We stopped where we could see the American Airlines sign, I got out, got my two bags, (one to check and one carry-on)
I asked a uniformed person outside the door "I need to get to the American Airlines checkin desk"
We stepped inside, she looked to the right and said "you need to go down there"
So I walked, wheeling my bags ALL THE WAY to the other end of the terminal, and was told "oh no, you need to be back where you just came from" so...
My friends, if I had not already take a Xanax, they would have arrested me by the time I got back to the starting point.
I
Was
LIVID 😡
Luckily, they saw my plight and put me into a roller seat, and someone TOOK me where I needed to go, and it was that way every other airport until I got home (back to hotlanta that is) Even here, my ticket had WHCH on it.
There was a chair waiting, but only one guy to push TWO wheelchairs when we got back to hotlanta.
Now where was I? Oh yeah, Airports.
Heathrow was another nightmare, customs, trams all over the place, tunnelling from one side of the airport to the other to get my flight to Shannon Airport in Ireland (one experienced traveler told while we both waited, that Heathrow was THE WORST)
Finally, I got on my flight to Ireland
Shannon was such a welcome sight
So I had a travel agent set all this up here in the states. My trip included a rental car (to get the price down it needed to be a manual transmission.
Friends, I LEARNED TO DRIVE on manual transmission vehicles)
The problems here were several,
A. the car was a mirror image of what I learned on (steering wheel on the right, gear shift on the left) which was just a little disturbing, but I'd also forgotten that if you came to a stop, you had to put in the clutch or the car would stall.
B. I was on the left side of the road but foremost
C. my phone was on 10% battery when the guy from the rental agency programmed in my destination. about 5 miles outside the airport...
IT DIED!!!
I had to pee anyway, so I pulled off the road, went where no one would see me and let fly.
Then I opened "the boot" (the Trunk in USA) got my fully charged power bank outta my bags and sat there until my phone came up to at least 2% so it would start.
Now, my phone WAS connected to the car so I could hear it, but I could not SEE the phone on the seat next to me.
Here I am, driving into the City of Limerick Ireland, population of 102,287.
Streets were narrow to me, buildings RIGHT UP AGAINST the street, signage that was TOTALLY unfamiliar to me.
It kept telling me to go to "the Dublin Road" but I DIDN'T WANT to go to Dublin!🤡
Finally I found a Petrol station/convenience store on the left and asked directions to "The Kilmurray Lodge Hotel"
'Well you're on the right road, just keep going straight thru the next two roundabouts, then left at the third and you're there, about 8 more miles'
When I got back to the car, there was a button appeared on the screen "Android Auto"
I tapped it and suddenly the map was on the dashboard screen!!!
I made it to "The Kilmurray Lodge hotel"
)
Image from their website
Boy was I glad to get a drink and a lie down
(This image was from a couple of days later)
Next day (Sunday), my friend who is from SA (South Africa) but now lives in Limerick picked me up, and drove me to "The Cliffs of Moher"
!worldmappin 52.97320 lat -9.43073 long d3scr
I did not go to Ireland to do "Touristy" Things, so I most likely would not have gone there had he not picked me up. It was a DELIGHTFUL day spent in good company, catching up on stuff (I had not seen him since 2011)
Getting up there nearly killed me tho
On the way there and back, we passed through a village where the Travelers were having a market
(So I didn't get any video of the main part because I'd hit the wrong button on my phone)
My main purpose in going to Ireland was to investigate the possibility of finding a home I could purchase. My friend had sent me the link for
Daft.ie which is a realestate app that aparently EVERY property for sale in the entire nation is listed on.
Self Service Realestate in my opinion. You find a place that might suit you on the app, THEN you contact a realtor and MAYBE you can go look at it.
Friends, I don't DO anything on my phone.
I can't type well enough to send a text, I can barely read what is on my screen WITH my glasses.
When I bought this house here in the USA, I contacted a realtor, she looked on Zillow and others, found several, sent me images that I looked at on MY PC, a screen big enough to SEE the images.
After several weeks of going and looking, I decided on this place.
It just so happened there was a realtor office across the roundabout from my lodgings. I DID go there, and the windows were plastered with paper printouts from DAFT.IE.
She said that there were just too many people trying to come to Ireland and not enough houses to go around.
What was there was HORRIBLY expensive for what you get.
I was devastated, I was despondent, and I was sick.
I spent the next 3 days in my room, with brief forays out to get food or wine.
Amusing story
After the second day when I went to take a shower, there were no washclothes (square pieces of terrycloth that you soap up and use to scrub) I asked the front desk.
"No most people here use Loofah"
Luffa is a genus of tropical and subtropical vines in the pumpkin, squash and gourd family (Cucurbitaceae).
In everyday non-technical usage, the luffa, also spelled loofah or less frequently loofa, usually refers to the fruits of the species Luffa aegyptiaca and Luffa acutangula. It is cultivated and eaten as a vegetable, but must be harvested at a young stage of development to be edible. The vegetable is popular in India, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Vietnam. When the fruit fully ripens, it becomes too fibrous for eating. The fully developed fruit is the source of the loofah scrubbing sponge.
That was when I discovered that only had the underwear that I was wearing. 😟
Going back to the mall, there were no washclothes, but I did get a bundle of DISH TOWELS (for six Euros) I cut one in half and used it.
Then I tried to drive to a proper clothing store for the undergarments.
That was a near disaster. Oh! I did drive at 4 pm with the sun in my eyes trying to follow directions being spoken to me. I only got into the right lane (that's the wrong lane) twice with people honking at me, then the GPS told me I had arrived.. It had put me in an OLD ENTRANCE to the shopping center, that was now blocked off.
I turned around and went back to my room.
Next morning I paid a taxi $20 round trip to take me to that store
So for souvenirs of Ireland, I have a new dress shirt, one new Tee shirt and three pair of briefs.
That was an end to my driving attempts
So high and low points.
I DID a LOT of walking around the city immediately near my lodgings
For the first time in many years, I went inside a mall
I ate ate many meals away from the hotel, several in that mall. Dripped "Brown Sauce" on my brand new dress shirt (I swear I can't take me anywhere 😉) the propietor of that place gave me a packaged, lemon infused hand wipe, so I got most of it off, washed the spot by hand with soap when I got back to my room)
2 nights before I left, my friends from South Africa were going to "take me out someplace nice to eat" but they were late and we ate in the restaruant there in the hotel (that is the new shirt I had previously dripped brown sauce on)
I discovered "Pizza Wars"
I did NOT go across the Atlantic to eat Domino's pizza.
Just before I left, I caught the other place open and had one of there pies
It was delicious
There was a real Pub near the pizza place, I went in once at noon, because I was hungry and the wine merchant had told me they had good food, but alas, the cook didn't get there until 5 pm.
I was leaving, and noticed a piano, a brand I'd never heard of
One older fellow from those that were belly up to the bar, came out and pulled me back in to buy me a "Pint of Guiness"... I ended up staying for a while and had a bunch of funny interactions.
There was a piano in the bar at the hotel, but when I sat down to play a bit, even though several patrons had encouraged me and were listening, management came and told me to stop; someone in the bar had complained. 😒
There were several ball teams checking the night before I left (the team manager is on the left)
Packed to leave for home on April 5th. My SA friends kindly came and one drove my car and me back to Shannon airport with the other following
I turned in the rental, then went thru security, bought a bottle of Irish Whiskey in the Duty Free store
all the way across the Atlantic, since there was no wifi, the gentleman next to me and I had a very enlightening conversation.
Turns out he is very successful doing "Air BNB" properties.
He and his wife were flying on to Miami Beach, so we parted in JFK airport
I boarded Jet Blue, and I think we had a well known R&R personality on board with us.
I did not get a good full on photo, but when I first saw him, he was walking towards me. He saw me looking, recognizing him (still can't place who he is) gave me a little smile and a brief wink)
All in all, it was a good trip, just now what I had planned on.
"My Trip To Ireland 2025"
by
Jerry E Smith
©4/9/2025
All images were taken with my cellphone, other than the one screen shot
by
Jerry E Smith
©4/9/2025
All images were taken with my cellphone, other than the one screen shot
