Tuesday, October 8th
Today marks the end of our Ireland travels. Spent the night in Leixlip at the Courtyard Hotel. Nice place, miserable drive and Phil’s last Ireland drive. Our plane doesn’t leave from Dublin until 4:25 this afternoon, so we’ll stay put til noon since we’re only about thirty minutes away.
Finding the Hertz car return was a might tricky, but taxi drivers are always willing to help clueless foreigners. After returning the beloved Skota Citigo, we shuttled to the airport Hertz desk where we received a credit for the headlamp and engine coolant. The Hertz rep chuckled when Phil handed over the spent bulb and remaining coolant.
Unlike Southampton the Dublin airport is huge. Still having a couple of hours to wait, we sipped coffee, ate a protein bar and read. Then, time to move. Checked in and herded through security like cattle. Most unpleasant. Walked out onto tarmac and boarded a twin engine plane identical to the one we flew over in two weeks ago. We were able to select seats in the second row from the front.
Touched down in Southampton ninety minutes later, picked up our two pieces of luggage and headed outside to grab a taxi. Nope, not so fast. Taxis must be preordered. Go back inside, pay twenty two pounds and then you get a taxi. Special deal worked out between the taxi service and airport. The drive to the hotel was sloooow due to time of day and multiple road projects happening simultaneously. When Diane asked the taxi driver if there were any particular routes he especially disliked, he responded “Yes, this one”.
Got dropped off at Drury’s Inn, the same place we stayed last time, but this time we booked an executive king room. The difference … not much except a couple of free drinks, coffee and a frig with cold water, two cans of Pepsi cola and KitKat bars. The room’s air conditioning still turns itself off at midnight.
Had a steak dinner at a little pub, the cost of which included a free drink from the bar. Getting very fond of that Guinness dark draught beer.
Back at the hotel we settled in with some decaf and cookies and called it a night. Breakfast in Ireland, dinner in England.
Wednesday, October 9th
Couple of important things to get done today, go to the ATM, the train station to better understand the system for getting to London where we board the Eurostar to Brussels and get to the storage facility to swap out travel necessities.
After protein bars and cookies we headed out walking to the Central train station which Phil believed went past the ATM. Not so. Got to the ATM just fine but since the iPhone refused to help in locating the train station Phil relied on a taxi driver. We were headed in the wrong direction. After a long walk we found the station and an extremely helpful attendant. He explained the tube changes we’d need to make. Sounded a bit scary, but he even wrote down the directions. So glad we decided to check it out today.
We timed the supposedly thirteen minute walk back to the hotel. Twenty four minutes if anyone asks. We will be preordering a taxi. Discovered another memorial of the Titanic disaster. This one giving tribute to the musicians. Back at the hotel, We drank our free cup of coffee and finished the dark chocolate covered rice cakes which we still had from Ireland.
Except for some minor squabbling the storage facility excursion was on uneventful. Phil “You always have to have the last word” Diane “I don’t”. End of discussion.
Early dinner/late lunch, then back to the hotel to work on this blog. Took a break from blogging as the free drink tickets weren’t going to waste if Diane could help it. So we sat in the hotel lounge and watched an episode of Doc Martin as Diane had two ginger ale and rum drinks. Deed done. Up to the room and back to work on the blog.
Thursday, October 10th
Preordered a taxi last night for 8:45 this morning. Our train to the London Waterloo station leaves at 9:30. Ordered breakfast in our room to save time in the morning. Breakfast never came. Instead it was protein bars and coffee. Not a comfortable way to start an already anxious morning.
Caught the 9:30, splurging for first class for the hour and twenty minute ride. Once the train pulled in boarding was lickety-split with us being the last to board after the platform attendant directed us to the wrong end of the train. Arrived at Waterloo twenty minutes late and we’re getting nervous because we still have to take two different tubes (underground rails) to get us to the Eurotrain at the St. Pancras International station.
If you use the tubes regularly it’s probably a great way to get around, except for maybe rush hour, but for newbies it is one gigantic maze. Rail attendants were always quite helpful. Arriving at St. Pancras we had an hour wait and a chance to catch our breathes. But then the Eurotrain arrived in Brussels late and we only had a matter of minutes to disembark and catch the ICE train to Cologne Germany. We were fortunate to meet a woman on board who travels to Cologne often and we followed her to the correct train. She made sure we kept her bright pink sweater in sight. We didn’t need to worry. At one point she walked back to let us know what to do next.
Came out of the Cologne rail station to a large demonstration against Turkey’s attack on the Kurdish militia after our president gave Turkey the green light to kill our allies in the fight against ISIS. Our hotel, the Ibis, is at the rail station complex. Later we explored the shops and eateries at the rail station. Walked a few blocks from the station to have dinner at the Istanbul Restaurant. Then walked back to the hotel to sleep in our itty bitty room.
Friday, October 11th
Got up early as we have to go out to eat breakfast, then pack up and get to Hertz by 10am. Headed out to quickly check rail station for a breakfast place we might have missed. No luck. McDonald’s it is. We each have an egg McMuffin with no cheese and a cup of coffee. As we sat down to eat Phil spilled his hot coffee all over Diane. We eat quickly as now as we noticed that Diane’s Fitbit says it’s almost 9 o’clock but her phone says it’s almost 10 o’clock. Oops, another time change. We’re going to be late for Hertz. Now we’re in a rush. We hurried back to the room. Diane changed her clothes and washed the coffee out of her other clothes. We packed everything up and hurried to Hertz. Luckily, they’re not far.
Our rental this time is a Ford Focus, series ST. We have to admit that it exceeds our expectations. It has push button start and touch to lock and unlock, a built in gps that interacts with the dash to display the speed limit by the digital odometer and often displays a turn coming up. And it is comfortable and wit only 3500 miles on it, it’s brand new!
We’ll, we have our car, now off to explore Germany!
PS -Reason #3 why blog doesn’t get updated. . . too much beer!