The Wedding Trip 2013
Friday March 15.
We left home a little early on a cold cloudy day. Should be no problem with the flight I thought, the computer said the flight was on time, but why tempt fate? After all, it's a 2 hour drive if there is no traffic, but crossing the 401 through Toronto almost screams traffic. Well the trip was fairly uneventful and after parking at Park n Fly we made our way to Terminal 1. The shuttle dropped us off almost in front of the United Airline counter and there was no line up. Wow things were going well, so far. The agent said she was glad we were early because our flight had been delayed--- but she could get us on an earlier flight that had also been delayed. ??? We were a little confused at that point but she assured us we would have no trouble making our connecting flight. After borrowing a pen and filling out the U.S. Customs form we proceeded through security. Again, fairly smooth, I didn't have to take my shoes off, only my belt. Of course we were selected to have our carry on luggage hand inspected. No biggy, I had my backpack repacked in less than 10 minutes. We proceeded to customs, and again fairly smooth once the agent realized we were just passing through the U.S., they weren't that interested. The plane was a smallish connecting type that could handle maybe 40 passengers. There were 7 of us. We pretty well had our choice of any seat in the back two thirds of the craft.
Waiting for take off.
A smooth trip. The only exciting spot was the view between the clouds and haze of New York City as we approached Newark, New Jersey.
Our flight to Belfast was a Boeing 757 with 2 rows of 3 seats. It could handle about 180 passengers. We sat a little back of the wing on the right side. Our seat mate was a young man who was on his way to Galway with a church group to rebuild a school. There were about 40 of them all wearing yellow "T" shirts. We were reasonably impressed with the plane and United Airlines, world travelers that we are. They served a lite dinner and then several hours later (as the sun appeared )a small breakfast. Carolyn tried to sleep without much success. I watched a movie on the small screen in the back of the seat in front of me. I must have been really impressed because I don't remember the movie at all. Maybe I did sleep, but I don't think so.
Not sure why everyone jumps up as soon as the plane stops at the gate because they can't go anywhere. The people up in first class get off first although I think even they have to wait for their bags like the rest of us. The airlines seem to load the craft fairly smoothly, but getting out is a free for all. Maybe it does work better that way.
Saturday March 16
That's right, it was the next day when we landed in Belfast. We had put our clocks and egg timers ahead 6 hours (usually it’s 5 hours but N. Ireland was still on standard time) At U.K.
Customs there were 2 queues (lines to you North Americans), one for countries that are European Union members and then the rest of the world. Both lines went to the same place, the EU line was just much shorter. When it was our turn the agent asked quite a few questions including how much money we were bringing in as well as Jeff's address. He did find it interesting that our Canadian son was marrying a lass from Northern Ireland. He also found it interesting that Jeff had just received his "Leave to Remain" papers, something like our landed immigrant status.
Speaking of Jeff and Nicola, they were waiting for us as we exited the gate and it was raining. Welcome to spring in Northern Ireland I thought.
I had arranged to hire a car through a friend of Jeff's, so that was our next stop. Patrick (Jeff's friend (good name aye)) had got us a fantastic deal on a brand new Hyundai I40 (not available here) with more bells and whistles that I knew existed. I thought it could almost drive itself, which would have been good, because it had been a while since I drove a standard and then there is the driving on the left thing.
Somehow we made it to Jeff and Nicola's house where they prepared a fantastic waffle, bacon and brie lunch. They called it lunch but my stomach wasn't sure. Somewhere we had lost a day.
They had an errand to run to a town called Killyleagh, so off we went. Killyleagh has the distinction of having the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Northern Ireland.
It was raining, but that's wet snow now.
It's owned privately and is very nicely kept. It was still raining so we found ourselves in the Dufferin Arms, the local pub. A fair size crowd was in the pub watching a rugby game between Ireland and Italy. We found a very small room (just big enough for the four of us) and ordered drinks.
The bar maid came around and offered us some Irish stew. Seems they had made too much for the game crowd. Lucky us. After the game we listened to a group in the same pub playing traditional Irish Folk and Bluegrass music.
A normal Saturday so the sign says. On arriving back at the house we talked for a while then we excused ourselves and went to bed. At that point I think we had been up for over 24 hours.
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