This was our 6th and final day of our Ireland trip. This is Ann's last guest post, so by now you know the drill.
Today was just a travel day. First, we had to travel back to Kerry, which was a solid 2 hours from Bantry. Given the extended travel time to Bantry, we decided to not be the crazy families running through the airport trying to make our flight and left with plenty of time to return our cars and check in at a peaceful pace. My daughter thought our first breakfast in Ireland was odd. Well today was the oddest lunch. Kelle packed up all of our leftover food into 13 individual sandwich bags, from deli meat, cheese, and fruit, to cookies and candies. We really didn’t have time to stop for lunch so once we turned in our cars we sat outside the airport (if you recall it was pretty small so there wasn’t’ a lot of room for us to hang out inside until closer to our flight, and even then it was limited) where we enjoyed lunch. The kids each got a bag, and we told everyone to barter with someone else if they didn’t like their fruit, or other item in the bag. It worked out perfectly as everyone was fed, and just about everyone had a treat they wanted, and the adults finished up the last of the Guinness and beer now that the driving was over for a few hours.
We did end up making time for one very short stop on the way to the airport. About a half hour from the airport we got a text asking if we had time to visit one place, a Shire bar. Yes, Shire like The Hobbit. Kelle and I thought it was just back a mile or so. Nope it was several miles away, but only slightly out of the way. Parking was a challenge and we basically parked both cars while the dad’s ran in for a quick look and a few photos, and only time enough to smell the beer and not order a pint. Keven said the kids would have enjoyed it if we’d had the time to see it. But unloading and reloading kids in the car would have taken more time than we believed we had.
Our plan to arrive with plenty of time to spare sort of backfired on us as our 3 pm flight didn’t end up leaving until well after 4 pm. The flight coming in before our flight was late so the people from that flight were lined up by the doors. Then people from our very full flight had to stand in line to allow room for everyone on the flight after us to stand. Once you went through security there really wasn’t much room to stand, especially not three flights worth of people. The kids were troopers during all of this, keeping the younger kids entertained. When the kids got tired of standing they ended up sitting down at our feet to play cards. They had an on-going game of hearts that they kept track of the whole time we were there. We were all happy to get back to Germany, but a bit hungry. We were an hour away from the Smith’s home, so we bought some pastries at the airport to satiate the kids. At the last minute we decided to hit the drive through Burger King that was near the airport as Germany was an hour ahead of Ireland so we’d be getting home well after 8 and wanted to have a more reasonable bed time before heading off to visit Trier, the oldest city in Germany, the next day.
So ends the Irish part of our vacation. We covered most of what we planned to see and definitely got to see the beauty of the country. When we head back I won’t be intimated about driving on the wrong side of the road. I’ll stay longer and visit more of the south west coast of Ireland, along with Dublin, and Northern Ireland. I’ll try to connect with relatives from my mom’s and dad’s side, and perhaps stay in the house my Nana was born in. And we’ll spend more time in a pub enjoying the beer and music, which is hard to do with a bunch of young kids, so not the right plan for this trip. Perhaps we’ll need two or three more trips to really see it all. Slainte!
Here are more pictures from earlier in the trip that didn't make it on the other posts...
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