Belfast & Dublin 2014

Well folks, we're at it again. We're in Northern Ireland for an early new year visit to see Mum.

Our latest sojourn to Ireland was conceived when I wondered how come Mum had never been online, and what it might take to make that happen. This was back in early November as we were mulling what to send her for Christmas, and I thought, why don't we send her an Apple iPad.  But then the idea of getting the internet all hooked up, the cables, the wires, the setup seemed daunting.  So I decided to setup the service from the U.S. and plan a trip to visit her and personally set it up myself. It's an idealistic dream of sorts, to hand my Mum a device more powerful technologically than she has ever touched in her 72 years. A device that could keep her in contact with friends, and with the written word, with her music, and so I can see her on a video call. So off to Ireland we flew.

Our flight was generally good, on a British Airways A380 Airbus, the ones with an upper deck, apparently the largest plane in BA's fleet. Don't let the violet blue mood lighting and ambiance fool you travelers, the seats were extremely cramped, and the recline of the seat in front of you means getting out of your own seat to pee is an awkward gymnastic feat, particularly for a big guy like me.  The only two events of note involved children, one was a 42 year old German who wanted to keep going up to business class to "Hang", after his second attempt we witnessed the BA people get in this guy's face and warn him not to do it again or the captain would be called. We had earplugs in, and noise cancelling earphones over them, but these two sound barriers were penetrated by a restless baby who entertained the cabin with her endless cries throughout the night. Somehow I awoke on chapter 11 of my Neil Gaiman audio book "The Ocean at the End of the Lane", missing 9 chapters, so I must have slept there somewhere.

Touching down in London, the obstacle course known as Terminal 5 had us breathless.  We went to UK Border, got through it in about 45 minutes, but there was no apparent exit door for continuing flights. This meant we had to exit the airport, go up an elevator, re-enter, pass through security, find the Heathrow Express and then figure out what platform to wait on to get to Terminal 1.  After a 12 hour flight, punchy, this can be exhausting, but we muddled through with about 20 minutes to spare for our connecting flight to Belfast City.  Traveling into Belfast on New Years Eve is, well... quiet.  Lots of airport shops were closed, nobody around when we got there.  Stephani had the forethought to download the UK maps for our Garmin, and program in the address of our hotel, mum's house, and the airport so we simply push a button for directions. We got to the hotel, which was in the midst of New Years Eve celebrations. We had time for a quick shower, then went down to the restaurant for fish n chips and a few pints before going to bed around 10.

We awoke  to the sound of zapping alarms and strobe lights a few hours later. I was reaching for anything that resembled an alarm clock, but realized we were in Ireland and in typical Irish charm, someone had set off the fire alarm to usher in the new year.  Happy New Year Belfast!   This is going to be an interesting trip.