Thursday, April 17--Or is it still Wednesday?

Anyway, we finally arrived in Heathrow, and 5 long lines and hour later, we arrived at our Aer Lingus gate for our 10 am flight to Dublin. By the way, the geriatric tour group somehow all made it onto the B.A. flight and was with us at the gate in Heathrow. Just in case you were wondering.

The flight to Dublin was relatively uneventful, except for the fact that I fell asleep even before the plane took off. More amazing, there was NO Xanax or wine in this equation. It's amazing what sleep deprivation will do for you.

We arrived in Dublin, easily passed through customs, found our luggage and our rental car (a tiny Ford Escort--Bob's head about sticks through the roof, much like Fred Flintstone's). Finding our hotel was another matter altogether. We knew the hotel was on Swords Road, so we kept following signs that said "Swords". Unfortunately for us, these signs point to towns, not roads. So we ended up in the town of Swords, which, while completely adorable, was not our destination point. We headed back down towards the airport, and, after stopping at a gas station to ask for directions (Bob's idea--who woulda thunk it?), we finally arrived at the Regency Hotel. Our rooms weren't quite ready, so we bellied up to the bar and had ourselves our first pint of Guinness in Ireland. And another. Guinness is much tastier in Ireland, by the way. I'm told it has something to do with the water that it's made with.

Our room finally ready, we freshened up, bound for the Holy Grail of Guinness--the Guinness Storehouse! One of the travel mags I've read described the Storehouse as Disneyland for beer lovers, and I'd tend to agree with that assessment. An audio and visual assault, the Storehouse is 7 levels of how Guinness is made, culminating with the Gravity Bar at the top, complete with 365 degree views of Dublin. The free pint you're given there completes the experience.

After our Storehouse experience, we took a taxi back down to the Temple Bar area. It's a definite mecca for, as the Irish call it, stag and hen parties (bachelor and bachelorette parties). It's definitely chock full of pubs and tourist-y type stores selling overpriced goods adorned with the Irish flag. We had dinner at The Quay Pub. I had an amazing Beef and Guinness stew and Bob had the same. VERY tasty. But since it had been a loooong day, coupled with a few pints and glasses of wine, my tent was definitely starting to fold. We made our way back to O'Connell street and caught a bus back to our hotel. I was asleep in about 5 minutes and didn't move the entire night!