Vagabond Wild Irish Rover Adventure Weathersfield to Boston to Dublin
October 15-16, 2021
We booked our Vagabond Small Group Tour Wild Irish Rover 8 Day Adventure in January 2020 using GO IRISH Tours. It was supposed to be a birthday adventure for me but we all know what happened in March 2020.
So we rebooked for October 2020, thinking COVID-19 would be on the back burner by then. NOPE. We rebooked for April 2021 still no luck. We rebooked for October 2021 and it finally happened.
Friday, October 15, 2021
We drove to Boston/Logan and rode a non-stop Aer Lingus plane into Dublin. We had bid on business class seats and got them (so this is how the other half lives!). It was awesome. We had a special line to check-in could take 3 bags free if we wanted to and had a fast lane through TSA screening.
Once past screening we have access to the airport lounge-free food, cocktails, drinks etc., comfy seats, oh boy. Our flight was schedule to leave at 17:15 and the lounge was fairly full but everyone was wearing masks-well all the adults were, most of the kids in there were not.
We had a special boarding line and are ushered to our seats. We are barely in them and the steward comes through the cabin and asks if we'd like champagne-umm yes, please.
The seat is HUGE and it has a built in massage and slides forward to a flat position for sleeping. It has a big screen TV. Not many movies loaded that I haven't already watched but still fun.
The guy in the single across from me has a runny nose and is sneezing but we were all required to show vaccination cards or a negative PCR test to board the plane. He slept the whole six hour ride and it looked like he kept his mask on. The Irish government also made everyone sign up for in country location should an outbreak happen.
Dinner arrives- salmon salad, Italian white wine and raspberry tart for dessert. After dinner I slide down into sleeping position and the next thing I know it's midnight Boston time and they are trying to feed us breakfast.
Saturday, October 16, 2021
Our plane lands early and we're first off. We breeze through immigration and are bags are almost the first off the plane to so we breeze through customs too.
When we booked back in January of 2020 we were supposed to be landing around 8 a.m. but with all the cancelations and re-bookings we land at 5:30 a.m.. We purchased an early check in at the Grand Canal Hotel but our room won't be ready until 9 a.m.. We hang on until 7 a.m. when they open for breakfast and enjoy a nice Full Irish Breakfast: eggs, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, tomato and brown bread. Then we hang out in the lobby again until they say our room is ready.
We take a nap for a few hours, shower and head out for a walk along the canal. The canal is quite interesting. The boats that must have traveled it in years past must have been pretty small or the canal has shrunk.
There are lots of water birds and houseboats too. We head one way then back track and follow the canal to where it meets the River Liffey.
All this walking around has gotten us hungry. We stop at The Gasworks for lunch; Jay has fish and chips and I have the carbonara chicken. We split a pitcher of Galway Brewery Buried at Sea Milk Stout-it was so good!
We are scheduled to meet our fellow adventurers Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. We're excited to start our 8 day tour but we're also exhausted, so we crash pretty early in our comfy Grand Canal Hotel room.
More photos from my adventure will be uploaded soon
You can scan this QR code or visit: https://photosbynanci.smugmug.com/Ireland-2021