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 Sunday, May 25

A long travel day.

After another full Irish breakfast, we got a taxi to the Dublin airport.  Traffic was very light into the metro area. 

Although the airport was crowded, it wasn't as bad as I have seen other airports.  Aer Lingus, the airline we were taking, moved us cattle smoothly through the check-in / bag drop off process.

Once through security, we cooled our heels until 12:45 p.m. when we could then access the US pre-clearance area.  

One pint of Guinness consumed at this point for hydration purposes.

Once we were through this area we were cleared through US customs while still in Ireland!  Nice.

Some more waiting near gate 403 until they started boarding our flight around 2:40 p.m. 

Another pint of Guinness was consumed at this point, again for hydration purposes. 

Kudos to Aer Lingus on the way they herded us cattle through this process and onto the plane, very smooth.  I'm sure it helped that the flight was not fully sold out but still, very smooth.  

I kind of like the way European airports control passenger/cattle flow through the various checkpoints.  Not being told what gate you're departing from till about 2 hrs beforehand was weird at first but I think it works better.  It cuts down on gate lice crowding departure gates!

We pushed off the gate 2 minutes early and we left Ireland under rainy overcast skies.

Aer Lingus fed us a meal and a snack during the 9 hour flight.  We also had snacks with us as we watched downloaded and in-flight movies to kill time while trapped in a metal cylinder.

We got to Denver a few minutes early, having experienced turbulence as we approached the airport.  A big storm had apparently moved through the area an hour before.

This storm delayed flights and operations at DIA.  We had to sit on the parking apron of Concourse A for over an hour before our gate became available!

Finally un-assed the plane and walked to baggage claim, happy to be back in US soil in spite of weather delays.

Some more delay until we figured out our luggage was sent to different carousel, thanks DIA, for nothing.

Our ride from the airport, a dear friend of Martha, picked us up under heavy rains.  

So, we got home in 3 hrs vs the usual 1 hour, oh well.  This is the last overseas traveling we'll be doing for a long while I believe.

Thanks for following along.