Woke up Friday to full sun and lovely weather because of course we were leaving. Headed to Heathrow for an early flight to Dublin. Uber driver arrived early and there was no traffic. All signs pointed to an easy travel day. Heathrow is truly a world of its own. It’s one of the largest, busiest airports in the world and it’s always a bit of a madhouse. It’s bank holiday weekend in England so the airport was even more crazy than normal with vacationers headed out.
We had elected the upgrade option from British Airways which included Fast Track thru security, access to BA lounge and first board group so we expected smooth sailing. The fast track line appeared fairly short then it all fell apart. You’re just supposed to scan your boarding pass, get your picture take and then the gate opens. Ida sailed thru but I flunked. The same thing happened to many others. Then I had to get into a line where there was a person who clearly hadn’t been adequately trained. They finally got a supervisor over to help. It appears that the camera in my case (and for many others) was pointed in wrong direction and taking the wrong picture. If your picture doesn't match you can’t get on the plane.
After finally getting thru the fast lane, we were queued up for the quick pass thru the carryon luggage screening. I ended up getting pulled out for wanding and one of my bags got pulled for searching. Ida made it thru without wanding but one of her bags got tagged too. The entire process took over an hour to navigate so it’s a good thing we elected to go early. We headed to the lounge and after a bit of an issue with Ida’s boarding pass finally got in so that we could hang until the gate information for our flight was posted. The gate areas are always congested so the gate info isn’t posted until about 50-60 minutes before departure. We opted not to have the marmaite or beans on our toast. Things improved from this point and our flight loaded up and took off for Dublin on time.
We arrived in Dublin to 50 degrees and rain as expected. Clearing immigration in ireland is always smooth and if you have an Irish name on your passport, you’re greeted with “Welcome, home.” Our Uber driver was very entertaining and I’m pretty sure at least half of his stories and information were true. We hooked up with all the Mississippi ladies at the hotel. They had just flown in from the states this morning. Ida knew the only way to power thru jet lag was to have a bit of a pub crawl, then dinner. We started with a pub, The Hairy Lemon, next to hotel then wandered into Temple Bar area for a full immersion. Ida’s brilliant idea for dinner reservations at the Old Mill paid off as we didn’t have to worry about queuing up somewhere. We wrapped up with after dinner drinks at the hotel and hopefully the whole crew gets a full night’s sleep.
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