The trip started out poorly when our flight from Pittsburgh to Chicago O'Hara was delayed about a half hour. We had a further delay when we reached Chicago when the mobile ramp that is supposed to move up to the plane door wouldn't move. Of course the gate for our flight to London was in another concourse. We ran though the airport and managed to get there in time. After a long flight we landed at London Heathrow, possibly the world's most confusing airport. Hallways, stairs, more hallways, various check points and then a shuttle to another terminal with more hallways and check points and we finally get on a flight to Dublin. Too bad Linda's luggage didn't make it. Everyone at the hotel was nonchalant about it. Apparently this happens all the time out of Heathrow and we were assured it'd probably be there the next day. It was. We'd have more airport adventures on the way home.

We stayed at Hotel St George, a nice location within walking distance of a lot of the city. It was old but charming. The hallways were narrow and even bumpy in spots and for some reason I kept thinking about Fawlty Towers, the British comedy with John Cleese. The lift was tiny and so was the bathroom. And by the way it's a "toilet" not a bathroom or restroom. Apparently nobody in Ireland uses a face cloth because there was never any in the hotel rooms. There was a tiny shelf and no hooks to hang anything. The shower was a small quarter circle affair in a corner and there were legends of an American that once got stuck in one. There was no place to put your soap or shampoo and no room to bend over to get it if you dropped it. They had a computer in the lobby to use at 1 Euro per 10 or 12 minutes. We really did enjoy our stay there and the staff was wonderful. It was a great place to stay and would do so again if I ever went back.

The map shows our route around the island and the places we would be staying starting with Dublin and going clockwise to Belfast.