February 14, 2008 - Murphy beds in Ireland

This day was supposed to be a touring and sightseeing day, for me to enjoy the countryside between Limerick, in the west, to Dublin and its airport in the east of Ireland. A very heavy fog settled in on central Ireland and I had to consider myself lucky just to be able to see the road. I studied a map the night before and purposely got an early start, such that Limerick's narrow one way streets wouldn't complicaate my departure. That was a good move, but once on the highway, I was tense for next so many hours watching for highway signs in the fog and driving among daily commuters who wondered why I wasn't doing the speed limit or greater.. I didn't want to drive at their speed because at my age, my eyesight isn't that good and neither is my response time to road conditions. Where I could, I would stay in the left lane (remember, I'm on the 'wrong' side of the road), and let traffic get past me. In some cases, I would pull over at a bus stop or some other 'lay-by' to let traffic pass.

My basic objective for the day was to get to Dublin and its airport safely by late afternoon. That I accomplished. How easily is another question. I just don't understand the Irish and their road markings. I never saw a sign for the Dublin airport but drove by instinct again. I located the Heruz rental car return and one of their people was kind enough to drive me over to my airport hotel. The fog which blanketed the country persisted and when I checked into my airport hotel, the fog was still thick. I resigned myself to a warm bath, a good meal and a relaxing night.

Ah, but sometimes things don't come as expected. The heat in my room didn't work and I later found out it was a problem throughout the hotel. The hotel was crowded and I was allocated a room with a real Murphy's Bed - the kind you pull down from the wall. I kept my cool and let my toleration level deal with these situations. I later got to sleep but had to face a 4:30am wake up call such that I could be checked out and at the terminal by 6:30am. I made that okay, was first in line and after getting my bags checked and my passport checked, I had all kinds of time to kill before my flight. Who said travel is easy?