06/13-14/2026: And We’re Off Again

Saturday, June 13, 2026, we departed Binghamton to travel to Dublin, Ireland where we’ll get on a luxury Windstar cruise ship the following Wednesday and journey 8 days ending in Edinburgh. The cruise is sponsored by Olivia Travel, the women’s travel company with whom we’ve taken many trips. Christine saw this trip advertised and wanted to go. We’ve never been to Ireland and she’s recently been talking about Ireland because her father’s family apparently is Irish. Christine learned about a family clan named Tyrrell whose original tower house was built in the middle of Ireland long, long ago. More about that tomorrow. At any rate, we’re off on a wonderful trip.

Our friend Eve was kind enough to pick us up and drop us off at the bus station. We traveled to New York’s Port Authority bus terminal. It was a beautiful day for travel and seeing the Upper Delaware River along NY Route 17 was a treat.

The traffic around the NYC area was crazy because of the World Cup match so it was very slow going into the Lincoln Tunnel. There was a quick view of Manhattan just before entering the tunnel.

We arrived at Port Authority about 45 minutes late, but we still had sufficient time to get to JFK the recommended 3 hours ahead of our flight. We opted to take the subway to avoid traffic in and around the city. After a few queries, we found the E train and we survived well, with Christine seated right away and I got a seat during the ride. From the E train, we got to the Air Train at JFK and arrived at Terminal 4. We checked our suitcases, made our way through security with essentially no line, and got to our departure gate. All in all, the trip to JFK was fairly easy.

We boarded the plane and pushed back on time, but then it took forever to take off due to all the jets queued up awaiting takeoff. Finally, we were in the air. Flight time was just about 6 hours. Neither of us slept, but it was a good flight. We got our first glimpses of Ireland as we neared Dublin.

Getting through immigration was quick, surprisingly, and we were happy to see both suitcases arrive on the baggage carousel. We opted for a cab to the hotel, but we arrived too early for check-in. We dumped the luggage, had a cappuccino in the lobby, and then headed out for a walk. Our hotel is two blocks from the River Liffey, which is a lovely place to stroll.

We had in mind doing a Hop On Hop Off tour around Dublin to get a feel for what we might want to see later. It was a 90-minute route and we sat on the upper level of a double-Decker bus. It was a beautiful day, not too chilly, with lots of sun. It’s hard to take reasonable photos while bumping along in a moving bus, and you see so much that you forget what you’ve seen, but here are a few photos. There are so many beautiful old brick buildings; the color of the brick is stunning. I didn’t really remember what any of the buildings were but ChatGPT helped identify many of them. But I love the old brick buildings the most.

You can’t come to Dublin without learning a little about Guinness beer which has been brewed since 1759. There is an historic district in the city where you see warehouses and old worker housing built during the heyday of brewing in Dublin. The plant still employs about 800 workers today, but that’s a small fraction of the numbers employed in the past.

Whiskey is the other big alcohol product famous in Dublin. This picture is of a landmark chimney at the Jameson distillery.

We got back to the hotel around 2:30 p.m. and our room was ready. We unpacked and then collapsed into bed for a nap. I set an alarm to wake us up around dinner time. I didn’t want to sleep then and not be able to sleep at night. We snacked a little because we didn’t feel like getting dressed and going out again. We watched some TV while I blogged. Hopefully, we’ll get a good night’s sleep and be ready for an exciting little adventure tomorrow.