June 09 thru 18 (IRELAND, WALES and ENGLAND)
My sister Laura and I took a tour by Explorica. We traveled to Ireland, Wales and England. For the most part it was a great trip. Read on for details...
09 JUNE 05
Our flight out was at 0900. We picked up Paulette, a friend of Laura's hit the road. At the airport we met with the other members of our group Mike Haney (group leader), Russ (a student) and Chris (a student). All seemed fine as we boarded United for the first leg of our journey, a flight to Dulles. At Dulles we encountered bad weather and delayed flights. It was soon clear that we would not make our connecting flight at New York for Heathrow. First we were advised to stay in D.C. because there would not be staff at Kennedy Airport to help us if we continued to New York. So we tried to get our luggage back and settle in for the night but when we asked for our luggage back, we were told that they could not get the luggage off the plane and advised us to continue on to New York anyway. On the way to New York, we found that there was another Explorica group on the same tour and in the same predicament so we banded together. At Kennedy we got a mixture of good and bad news. The good news, there were agents to help us re-arrange our flight schedules and we could get a flight on Aer Lingus straight to Shannon the next evening. The bad news, Explorica had no contingency plan and we had to stay the night in the Kennedy airport as there were no rooms available in the area. I was not happy about this and tried to find other accommodations but I was not successful. I got about one hour of sleep!
10 JUNE 05
Our flight to Shannon was not until 1845 so we decided to have an impromptu tour of New York. We rode the subway to Ground Zero, viewed the Statue of Liberty from afar (we did not want to wait in line) walked around New York visiting Times Square and a few other places then returned to the airport.
See New York photos here.
11 JUNE 05
At this point we are one day late in beginning our tour and at Shannon airport we are unable to locate our coach driver. It seems that he was not told that our tour is by Explorica and we were not told that the coach driver is from Abbey Tours. After quite a delay in ironing out the the misinformation we arrived at the "Killarney Court" hotel. No sooner did we arrive when we were whisked off on a tour thru the Ring of Kerry. The Ring of Kerry is a beautiful and quite colorful peninsula at the western coast of Ireland.
After dinner we took a walking tour of the town of Killarney. Later that evening Paulette and I stopped at the Danny Mann Pub to listen to traditional Celtic music and drink Guinness.
See Ireland photos here.
12 JUNE 05
Blarney Castle
See Ireland photos here.
13 JUNE 05
Dublin
See Ireland photos here
14 JUNE 05
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
See Wales photos here
15 JUNE 05
Stratford and Oxford
See England photos here
16 JUNE 05
Buckingham PalaceBig Ben
Houses of Parliament
Westminster Abbey
Tower Bridge
Hyde Park
St. Paul’s Cathedral
See London photos here.
17 JUNE 05
Return to US