July 31, 2024

July 31, 2024

We are up early and after breakfast we drive the last leg back to Dublin Airport completing our circle tour of Ireland. We turn in the rental car without a problem. I am happy to do so. While I quickly adapted to Left-side driving, narrow Irish roads are an accident waiting to happen. There is no room for any lapse in attention.

Our flight home is delayed. Big Surprise. After several hours of waiting, we boarded our flight to Philadelphia. We flew over several cruise ships steaming into Dublin’s harbor. On our approach to Philadelphia we followed the Delaware River passing the Walt Whitman Bridge, the modern cranes of the Marine Terminal and the old Navy Shipyard with its several dry docks. They are reminiscent of the Belfast Dry Docks where the Titanic was built. We arrive to find our next flight to Phoenix is also delayed. Flying has to be the worst part of travel. Our driver was waiting patiently for us and got us safely home albeit after midnight.

We had a great trip to Ireland but we are happy to be home. We miss the warm weather and sunny skies. Ireland is a great place to visit, the people are some of the nicest in the world, the scenery is gorgeous, and the history is extensive.

While it did rain often, we were never rained out. Just wait an hour and the weather will be different. Weather forecasting must be impossible there. Like New Zealand, the west is much rainier. But Irish weather has its benefits. We saw flowers everywhere. It seemed everyone had a colorful garden. Aimee’s favorite flower, the Hydrangea, is abundant there. Not surprisingly Aimee loves the blue variety. She gave me a chemistry lesson telling me gardeners change the color from red to blue by acidifying the soil. I learned later that the pH drives the supply of Aluminum ions to the flower pigment.

Having visited Ireland many years ago we were lucky to witness the transformation of Ireland. Ireland used to be one of the poorest in Europe; now it is one of the richest thanks to American investment. Ireland is clinging to their old Gaelic language. You would think we visited someplace more exotic based on the signage. Every street sign and storyboard were in dual Gaelic and English. When questioned if they spoke Gaelic, the answer was almost always,” God No!” Ireland would be better off with signage in a Slavic language to accommodate all the Eastern Europeans working there.