Our final day in Dublin was a bit warmer than our first day there, thankfully. We spent part of the day doing our last-minute souvenir shopping. Aside from that, we visited both Christ Church and St. Patrick's cathedrals. Both have a lot of historical and architectural significance. We had a nice lunch at a bistro near the Jameson's visitors center, and then spent the early evening packing.
That evening we walked to the Temple Bar area for dinner, crossing the Ha'penny Bridge over the Liffey on the way (pictured). After dinner, we went to the Friends Meeting House for a rehearsal of Gloria, Dublin's lesbian and gay choir. This group is larger and much better established than the men's chorus we visited Monday. The sounded great as they prepared for a very busy week. After rehearsal we went next door to the Ireland Film Institute for drinks with some of the members, and we had a great time getting to know them.
We had a fairly short night, as the cab for the airport came at 5:45. That was about 1/2 hour earlier than we needed, but we had plenty of time at the airport to check in, get breakfast, clear security, request our tax refunds, and go through customs.
We boarded the plane and left a few minutes early, taking off just after the sun came up. I watched the patchwork fields and lakes get smaller as we rose in altitude until we finally passed the west coast. Then the captain told us there was a problem with a redundant safety monitor of some sort, which didn't cause any problems, but they didn't want to cross the Atlantic without it. So we headed back to Dublin, landing an hour and 45 minutes after we left. Once on the ground, we learned that a replacement part was en-route from Amsterdam. About three hours later, the new part was installed and we were ready to go again.
We were re-booked on a flight out of Atlanta, about four hours later than our original connection. We landed at O'Hare just before 9:00 Central time. By the time we got the bags, picked up the car, and drove home it was 3:45 am, 27 hour after we began the journey.
It was a long and exhausting journey, but we saw and experienced a lot, met some great people, and had a wonderful time. We haven't been able to identify our favorite part of the trip, but we have discussed places we would visit again if we ever get a chance to go back. This trip was a life-long dream for Barry, and we're so glad we got to make the trip together.
And we've already started discussing ideas for our next trip together!
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