This is my first view of Ireland, from a British Airlines flight, about to land in Dublin. Shades of green, as far as the eye can see, just as I always imagined it would be.

Once we collected our baggage and went through customs, we headed for the car rental office. This was to be our (Dave’s really, I have no intention of driving!) first experience with driving on the left side of the road. Dave reserved a car with automatic transmission and with GPS. The car we ended up with had neither. Suddenly our journey from Dublin airport to Dublin was looking a lot more daunting…

We paid extra to get the GPS but were still stuck with the manual transmission. Dave had a manual when I met him, but that was in 1982… it’s been a while! Put it all together and you have the uneasiness of driving a manual, in a foreign country, on the wrong side of the road, with a far from modern GPS.

All in all, he did great, at least on this, our first day. I am not being a critic, actually, I am giving high praise! If it was me, with my ADD, dyslexia, and the fact that I can’t drive a stick – Very High Praise!

It was only about 6 miles from the airport to our hotel, but with all that, it was still something of an adventure. You know how travel is, with the security and the tensions and anxiety that foreign travel brings about, we were happy to get to our hotel and even happier when the valet said he’d park the car for us!

We’d booked a room at the historic (1824) Shelbourne, overlooking beautiful Stephen’s Green. The very hotel where the Irish Constitution was drafted on the first floor in 1937.

We were escorted by the bellman to the registration desk and from there on out – it was all gravy!

We’d reserved a “junior suite” so that Dave and I would have the master and Connor would have the suite part of the room. We were informed that we’d been upgraded!

Is there anything better than hearing that you’ve upgraded?! It is THE BEST!

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