It is time for my next trip to England to join another Alison Weir Tour. This year the tour the Red Dragon is through Wales. I have only made one brief stop in Wales back when I took my mom to England in 2002. We only saw a few sites so I am looking forward to seeing more.

But first stop is Dublin to see TCU play North Carolina. No I am not a big football fan but my sister is a TCU super fan and since we were already going to be in England we decided to add it on to the trip.

Of course we didn’t decide that before we bought our plane tickets so we had to book the flight to Dublin separately. We were already taking a strange route to London in order to get business class seats. The flight through Charlotte was way less points so we were flying out much later and arriving in London later in the day.

Our flights to London went well. The business class seat is really nice. Not sure I would pay for it but it is worth the extra points if you have them. I can’t say that I slept much more then normal but I was much more comfortable. I was the only one awake for a while and had my breakfast while everyone else was still had their seats in bed mode. The food is better in business class but again not sure that makes a big difference in the flight. All in all I will fly whatever I can to get across the ocean for a trip.

Now the second flight to Dublin was not so great. First it was more than a 3 hour layover so we couldn’t check our bags. Of course there were a lot of flights from London to Dublin to choose from but I had no idea how long it would take through customs or flight delays so I gave extra time. It was not needed. Immigration in London always goes quickly. I probably waited behind 2 people to get through. They open a lot of counters and have the automatic photo booths as well. After a long walk through the tunnels to get to another terminal we ended up waiting outside before we could check our bags. When we finally could check it was a madhouse. It was self serve but wasn’t going well for anyone. I got a tag printed and on my bag but it was whisked off before I “activated” the tag so no receipt and no guarantee of arrival. The staff was very fussy and just told me it was lost now. Then changed her story when I said I did exactly what she told me to do. She basically fussed for a bit then played on the computer for a second and told me to go. I spent the whole flight hoping my bag would make it.

After an hour delay we finally boarded to only then sit on the plane another hour before take off. So I had a long time to think about the bag. Thankfully it did arrive it wasn’t even last so I didn’t have time to really panic once we arrived in Dublin.

It was late so by the time we checked into our hotel it was time for dinner. They recommended the pub next door Murray’s for Irish food and music. I had a few beers some fish and chips and heard an Irish band. So not bad for our first few hours in Ireland.