Lovely photos. You had the luck of the Irish to be there with blue skies and not hundreds of tour buses.

Gorgeous!

We totally had some luck and maybe that was the silver lining of COVID and traveling a little later ---far fewer coaches to contend with.

Day 9 - Surprise celebrity, how did we miss this and Communists at College

Well, we knew our time as Lord andLady Dunraven would have to end. We got out the tablet and opened the drapes and turned on the lights in our sensational stateroom one last time. We were packed and went through the usual checking and re-checking to make sure we were not leaving anything. When we turned in the night before, our COVID test results had not been delivered, so I pulled up our results and thankfully, they were both negative.

I also had a little pre-breakfast financier from the Oak Room that was stellar and made my way to the reception office to ask if they could print our results for us. Done. I forwarded the emails and they printed and placed in an envelope for me. No hassle.

One last breakfast. two more 4 euro diet cokes and three boxes of goodies to depart with. We ran into PJ who is a staple out front at Adare Manor and he had the kitchen box some pastries up for the road. Very thoughtful.

He went to the room with Chaz to start the departure baggage run and I went back to reception to check out. Sigh. All in all with THE room and all the food and drinks, the bill wasn't terrible. I'm not saying it wasn't expensive but it was less than I had expected.

We said our goodbyes to the staff and met Mike out front for the trip to Dublin. It was a tad grey outside to match the mood. We were ready to go home but not ready to leave our fabulous "world".

We headed out and once we were on the M7, Mike said he had to make a short stop. Hmmm. He has been full of surprises. He picked up a little sheep for me as a small gift in Dingle and he gave Chaz one of the team hurling balls (a nice new one), so what was he up to now?

Well, if you don't know there is a Circle K service center called Barack Obama Plaza. I believe it is to celebrate his visit to Ireland and his Irish heritage and there is a statue of the Obamas out front. It was a photo op that he couldn't resist after the many chats we had about politics, world events, etc...Who woulda thought someone would dedicate a service center to Obama. Now, we've seen it all.

We continued on to Dublin and The Shelbourne. I had written a note to go along with the tip we were going to give Mike (and we hoped to be generous but not what he might think frivolous since the tipping standards and expectations are so different there. He saw me with money in my hand at some point in our journeys and made sure to tell me I didn't need to tip in that case. We couldn't have been in better hands for our first trip and while we know we lost some time due to the drive from Adare on our trips, we like to choose an amazing hotel that we want to be at and stay put on our first trip. It's a personal choice but for this trip, we really didn't want to move around. We already had to add Dublin since getting to Shannon was beyond challenging with the flight consolidations post-COVID. I hate to pack and unpack!

We got to the hotel, got our bags and said our goodbyes. I nearly cried. We're still in touch with Mike and hope to stay in touch. I know he stays in touch with some of his previous clients. He was also complimentary of us (maybe just to be nice but I hope it was true), as he felt we were very easy to work with. We rolled with whatever came our way and tried not to show up with a lot of "musts" and "have to" and tried to be respectful of his time and of his beautiful country. We know we had the best possible time and a lot of that is because of him. If you are near Limerick and looking for a driver, Carrig Coaches is a great company and Mike is truly an asset to them.

We checked back into the Shelbourne. This room less spacious but very nice. We got out what we would need to the trip home. I had booked Book of Kells and The Long Room tickets for the afternoon. We had a little time and decided to head out and maybe get something light for lunch. It's amazing how you miss things entirely sometimes. On our previous stay we never went to the left side of the hotel. As we walked down the street, Chaz noticed a really nice restaurant and turns out, it's part of the Shebourne. We went back inside and saw a line. Uh-oh...we had no time for a wait. The two parties in front of us were not hotel guests and were turned away. We got a table at No. 27, The Shelbourne bar---a very beautiful space with blue walls, lots of windows and chandeliers. We saw fish and chips that looked very good. We decided a glass of wine for me (Albarino) and a Guinness for him and an assortment of cheese would be perfect given the time constraints. And it was then that I had a revelation. When we checked in we had the same agent as we had a week ago and she set up a taxi to the airport for us. In figuring out the timing she mentioned going through preclearance. Something that I had totally forgotten as we were originally having to fly through Amsterdam. Once we changed our flights, we would be flying directly to JFK from Dublin. I had been worried about a 1 hour 35 minute layover there (immigration/customs). Now, NO WORRIES. Preclearance in Dublin would mean we clear all that in Dublin and the flight arrives as if it is a domestic flight. What a relief. I wanted to just check bags but had though if we needed to clear immigration and customs we wouldn't want to wait on the bags with only 1 hour and 35 minutes. Problem solved. i think best with some wine.

We were just a short walk from Trinity College and found the public entrance and made our way into the book of Kells (Latin manuscript of the four gospels) exhibit. Pretty amazing and given my knack for always making mistakes when I write, I am stunned at how perfect it is. On to the long room and now I have seen it with my own eyes and not just on Instagram. It is really beautiful. Not a place you need a lot of time to visit but it's worth it (and the only thing we did in Dublin).

As we exited, we got directed to a bunch of tables set up for Freshmen (start of school semester) to visit and find their people. I'm kinda glad to not be 18 years old and trying to figure out who I am. We did chuckle at the kid waving a Soviet flag and trying to sell Communism. It isn't cheap to go to Trinity College and given the failure of Communism is so many places, that's a hard sale in my opinion. I'm wondering why he doesn't just move to China or North Korea. (My mom used to have this thing on the refrigerator addressed to the teenagers of America. The advice was to leave home now while you still know everything ). That came to mind as we chuckled at the smug look on his face and I wonder if he truly would want to be told what course he would take at university and what job he would have after his education was complete. Anyway, I hope he enjoys his time at school, recruiting for the Communist party and his freedom to do so. The capitalist in me decided to check out a little bit of Grafton Street after leaving Trinity College with the sweatshirt I bought. My primary souvenir of the trip.

We did a lap in Dubarry. I want a pair of their boots but didn't pull the trigger. I did buy some leather gloves. I have tiny hands and struggle to find any gloves that fit. I had a pair that I bought off the Spanish steps in Rome. The women there pulled out every small pair they had in the tiny store. Last stop was Aran Sweater Market. I spotted a pancho that I might need. They have everything in this store but I ended up with a beautiful wool and merino wool throw. And, they ship free if you buy 100 euros. I was burning up or I would have ended up with more but the throw will get a ton of use and last forever. (It arrived on the Monday after we got home on Saturday---amazing).

As we headed back down the street with no plan we ended back at No. 27, The Shelbourne Bar. First a diet pepsi (I hated to do it but I had to) then more Albarino. We had a few rounds and loved the space and decided not to go out to a pub for dinner and music. Chaz was beat after over a week with few naps. We did have the fish and chips and it was the best of the entire trip. I also finally ate a few bites of the mushy peas. Good but not something I'm really in love with.

We finally turned in and our vacation was officially over. Sigh. I then spent forever looking for our attestation papers that we were supposed to sign. That was fun. I finally realized I could attest online and then, I found the papers after tearing my bags apart looking for the damn papers. I forget more in a day than I care to admit to.
Off to bed before our travel back home.

We had a wonderful time. I'll share highlights and lessons learned in the next post.

“I think best with some wine!”
This free-form writing style is so appealing ~ thank you.

Thank you so much for your posting your trip. It was lovely of you to share it!

Ahh... it's over all too soon. I love the way you travel. Given the time needed, do you think you had sufficient time in Dublin or would you, in a perfect world, have spent more time?

Thanks so much. I really appreciate it and am always kind of amazed that anyone reads these at all. I always appreciate the comments (well, over the years 99% of the comments) and compliment is the cherry on the sundae.

Really returning the favor of all the trip reports I have read and learned from since joining Fodor's. In the end, I write these also for us....one, I'll forget everything if I don't and it's been great fun to re-read them over the years.

Well, there probably isn't a right answer here. Maybe one more full day would be nice. I'll admit that we did not get out and do much in Dublin, which is probably not fair to Dublin. With it book-ending the trip, I think we were a bit tired from the trip over the first day and the last day we were a bit played out. I don't feel like I missed a lot though. For me, I would not go out of my way to go back to Dublin but if I find myself there again, I wouldn't object. If I went back, I'd at least go into St Stephen's Green, walk through Temple Bar (but I don't think we'd hang out there) and maybe stick our nose in a church or two. I don't think we'd ever go to Guinness Storefront or Jameson tour. I am sure there are many who love Dublin and have seen far more there, than we did.

There's just so many gorgeous places in Ireland. I'd like to spend more time in the small towns like Kenmare and Dingle next time. I'm kind of obsessed with getting to Connemara and Donegal...

DUBLIN

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The long hall
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No 27 Shelbourne Bar
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No 27 Shelbourne Bar
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The Long Hall
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Spiral staircase
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Long Hall - Trinity College

denisea- I really enjoyed reading your report today. Such a beautiful and fun country.

Our first trip to Ireland - musings, highlights and lowlights

I did very little research for this try aside from choosing the hotel. We chose it because it's gorgeous, seemed somewhat central to some of the places we wanted to visit. And, we wanted falconry as activity. Ashford Castle and Sheen Falls lodge were two that we also seriously considered.

We never considered driving and think we made the right choice there.

The up in the air status of the trip made it harder to invest in researching it as much as I ordinarily do. The trip got postponed several times because of COVID and after awhile I really didn't think it would happen in 2021. I almost pulled the plug 2 weeks before we left when we couldn't fly into Amsterdam and I think if our flight home hadn't been direct to the US when we rebooked, I might not gone through with it.

It was a bummer that the airlines had consolidated a lot of flights and Delta is not currently operating the Atlanta to Dublin direct flight. Another COVID gift. I don't believe any US airlines are flying into Shannon right now....Delta is definitely not. We were extremely happy to finally be able to travel even if it was less convenient to get to our destination. The covid stuff was not bad; our digital vaccine card through CLEAR was always accepted. Only the check in desk at Atlanta (Delta) asked to see the original paper. The test to re-enter the US was easy on our end. We actually got a PCR test before we left, just in case. We never needed it but I wanted to cover all bases just in case as it seemed the "rules" were changing frequently.

Favorites:
Gus O'Conor's pub in Doolin - the chowder and the band/sing along
The wine pairings with our seventh heaven 7 course dinner at The Oak Room
Caramelized onion and sea salt bread at The Carriage House
Streaky bacon at brekkie every day
Irish brown soda bread at The Shelbourne
Torc waterfall
Dingle Sea Safari
The pool and steam room at the Padel Club
1824 bar at The Shelbourne
The Irish Coastline
The amazing raptors we met
THAT ROOM - Earl of Dunraven stateroom forever - will anything ever be better than that?
Meeting my donkey friends
Mike Stritch, our ambassador to Ireland

Not so much:
The Carriage house serving a little tin of French butter with bread (this Ireland--where's the Kerrygold?)
Realizing there is a naked guy taking a dump right along a scenic overlook in The Burren (but it is unforgettable)
The greasy dinner we had at The Carriage House bar
Maybe the only misstep by any of the Adare Manor staff - someone threw out the second half of my chocolate, sea salt caramel and almond bar (and amazingly did not throw out a glass of water with lemon left from the night before). True there was another one in the mini-bar but I didn't want to open another one.
A guy at The Shelbourne BOTH times that at check out was helping someone and then when he finished walked away telling those of us in line "that someone would help us shortly". He did it twice--walked over to another desk and did nothing while we stood in line. I hate that so much.

Next, I'd love to stay near Connemara and in Donegal and split the time between 2 hotels and fly into Shannon. We loved Ireland and it's quite different from any other country we have visited. I found that it took me about 5 seconds to translate Irish English in my head many times but it's nice to not worry about language. I love the Irish hospitality and sense of humor. We felt welcome everywhere we went. We struggled a little in packing and we definitely took a few things we never used---packing for cooler weather and the potential for rain, especially near the water was a challenge for us.

We had a spectacular trip. A bit about the travel part.

The airport restaurants are so under staffed. We had our traditional preflight meal and wine at One Flew South. It took awhile to get a table and I felt awful for the guys working there. They were doing their best and it can't be fun to be busting it at an airport restaurant. I hope people are nice to them and appreciate that they ARE there.

Business class during COVID isn't what it used to be...no Champs on the ground during boarding. Only wine and water service with the meal. The meal is brought out on a tray including your sad little cup of ice cream for dessert. Not sure that minimizing service really saves anyone from transmitting COVID.

I did not like the Airbus aircraft we flew from Atlanta to Paris on. First, because of the late flight change we were in row 1 which I always avoid as it is too close to the galley and restrooms. This was the WORST case scenario in terms of proximity to the restrooms. I could almost touch the door from my seat. When I mentioned how unfortunate the design is for the row 1 passenger to a flight attendant her response was "we have spray". Not encouraging and it's not just the smell but the constant door slamming. The crew wasn't particularly great on this leg. Also, there was no overhead space over the center rows, so not a lot of bin space for business class and no overhead vents. I was hot most of the flight.

Changing planes at CDG. Even though we only had to go through security again (non-Schengen to non-Schengen) our friends at CDG sure did make it as chaotic as possible. It took forever and then I my bag got pulled to test for explosives residue and that took about 15 minutes. I had to cut off a man who decided to ask the woman who supposed to be performing that check as she was putting my bag back together a lot of questions. She could not answer him without stopping what she was working on...I finally told him he'd have to go to information as I'd been there for a long time waiting and he was interrupting the woman who was inspecting my bags. I would never want to try to make a tight connection there!

It was so hot in the airport and we were given a procedure mask on the plane to wear at CDG. No fabric masks etc...the Air France lounge was a hot mess with ew places to sit. We left and grabbed a glass of Champs, got some cash and water for the next flight. We had some panicky moments as I got a text from Delta saying our gate had changed to L something (meaning we'd have to go through security again - GOD NO). However, none of the boards in the terminal showed that gate change and we ultimately stayed put. Not sure what that message was about but I was so glad not to have to go through that chaos again.

The flight to Dublin was good and Chaz had foie gras for lunch (and I stole some of the cheese). Entering Ireland was a cinch--just showed the vaccine info and the passenger locator form.

Coming home we got checked easily, turned in my tax forms and bought some Tullamore and Green Spot Irish whisky. The best thing about checking bags (as long as you get them back) is having extra hands for duty free alcohol and I am sure I'll have a hot Irish a few times this winter. We went though security and then enteed the US Pre-clearance space where we went through security again and then passport control and customs. Piece of cake.

No club was open in the terminal and they had given us a voucher for food when we checked in. I needed a diet coke so bad by then and it was hot in the terminal and the staff pretty made made us get extra stuff because you can only use the voucher once so they want you to use all the money. Nice of them.

Preclearance on the way home to NYC was quick and made our travel into the states easy. We boarded on time but we were not seated together but barely got on that direct flight to JFK so we could't complain about it. Hilary Clinton was on the flight as she had just been in Ireland as chancellor of a college in Belfast. I saw her, thought it was her as I was stepping into a row to let passengers boarding pass by (as I was swimming upstream to the restroom). Her secret service agent quickly got a path cleared for me so he could get in that row as I was between them. He managed to clear the path with no one realizing who she was or why he is making sure I got through. No one noticed her at all. The flight crew and the aircraft was much better and it was more comfortable all around.

We spent a little time in the Sky Club at JFK and boarded on time - but still left an hour late. We made up a little time in the air. Our bags came out at a different carousel than the signs said...glad I though to check other carousels. And finally home with our sweet old Missy picked up from boarding by our former pet sitter and waiting on us. She is getting old and I don't think 10 days of boarding was great for her. We have to board her now because she needs fluids subcutaneously every other day. We lost our younger dog last summer and so she is on her own with boarding and we hate that. That will likely impact the timing of our next trip or at least the length of the trip.

If you've never been to Ireland, I can't recommend it enough. It's beautiful and there is definitely something for everyone. It's great to travel again and I know so many people's jobs and livelihood depend on travel. I can't wait to read more trip reports here (appreciate you reading mine) and thank all of you for your advice and input! I appreciate it.

A wonderful TR, denisea. Thank you very much for taking so much time to post such great detail and shots.

Another outstanding report with incredible pictures. Thanks for posting.

What a wonderful TR, thank you for letting us tag along with you!

Whenever we can get back to Ireland, it will be to Connemara, and especially, Donegal. My husband needs to replace his Donegal tweed blazer, and my Irish walking socks are finally wearing out!

denisea I love your trip reports! So excited to have this to read and follow along. Diet Cokes for breakfast y'all! I do that sometimes too. And, due to Covid my husband and I have unused tickets on Aer Lingus worth about $2,000. Looks like they might start flying non-stop again from Seattle to Dublin at the end of March, so your trip report is great timing for me as I am ready to start thinking about Ireland again soon. Thank you!

Thanks everyone - LunaBella our driver Mike could not believe I drink diet coke for breakfast. I don't drink coffee so I gotta get caffeine from an alternate source. I do come by it honestly as I remember my mom taking a few sips of Tab first thing before her coffee.

One thing I didn't mention about the hotel is the little spray bottles of lavender they left at turn down and the cushy, padded eye masks they also gave us...very nice along with all the other amenities. One other room feature were outlets for European, Irish and US plugs (no adapter needed)---very nice touch.

I think the other thing I'd say, is that I shoulda gotten a Brazlian blowout or other keratin treatment before leaving for Ireland. I have thick, wavy hair that is textured to eliminate bulk but without a keratin treatment it just gets huge and outta control in humid conditions. Pretty much had it in a ponytail the entire trip. While the hotel had a hair dryer, I need my Dyson to control it and dry my hair in a reasonable amount of time!

No sympathy on the thick and wavy hair from someone whose hair gets plastered to her head in humidity. Not a good look.

Your hair is truly gorgeous. Hair envy is a real thing. 👩🏻‍🦰

thanks but you have not seen the photos where it looks like Rosanne Rosanna Danna!!