Ireland #1

Ireland #1
Tuesday Sept 10
We had the morning in Copenhagen so went on aone hour canal tour which was interesting. We had a private car take us to the airport -- nice bonus. We had a good flight to London with a meal then started the many, many miles of walking. After getting through Terminal 5 we caught the transfer bus to Terminal 1. Once there we followed the easy to read purple signs for transfers but they carried on and on. We eventually got to the section where the Irish airlines leave then more walking. Poor Don -- his feet were killing him. We were photographed twice to verify our facial profile and went through several other checks. They sure are careful in Britain. The flight to Shannon was only 1 1/2 hours with no food. They were out of anything that appealed to us and didn't even give us water! Bad service. Once in Shannon we grabbed a cab to go to Limerick. At 9:30 at night we didn't want to fool around with buses and then not knowing where to go once we arrived. Turns out we were 3 blocks from one bus depot (there are two). So we arrived hungry with the pub attached to the hotel not serving food. Too late. But the bartender took pity on us and rustled around in the closed kitchen to make us a ham sandwich. What a sweetie!!!
The big trauma last evening was discovering my diamond had fallen out of my engagement ring. I had a gut feeling that it was nearby as we'd wrestled with suitcases on the small elevator in the hotel. So I looked there, outside, in the bar, etc. with no luck. Then I re traced my route again and there it was on the carpet just outside the elevator. Whew!!!
So, I've changed how we move our luggage about. Usually we have three on wheels which is awkward so now I'm putting my carry-on backpack/wheeled case on my back. So much easier today!
Interesting dilemna in Dublin. We got dumped off the bus downtown (in retrospect we should have got off at the train station). Don had to pee and we discovered that nowhere are there "free" toilets. We needed to eat anyway so bought lunch at Starbucks who's bill then gave us a code to use their washrooms.It's because of the druggies, etc. Also interesting was that the light in the washroom was blue. Our taxi driver told us it was to prevent anyone shooting up in there. Because of the blue light, they can't see their veins!!!
We had a nice talkative taxi driver on our way to Dunboyne Castle which is where our tour starts. Great to hear about local stuff. The other tour people arrived by air this morning and were taken out for a real Irish breakfast. We missed all that but I'm sure we had a real Irish breakfast anyway! -- beans, fried tomato, dry toast, and egg. Don had a sausage with his and I had fried mushrooms instead.
I walked around Dunboyne village -- not very big so didn't take long. Nothing very interesting to see.