Ireland 2021; Day 12

 

Time to take care of some essential business on this wonderful trip.

Soon after publishing today's post, Bill and I will be leaving our hotel room in Navan and will head for Dublin Airport.

No, we won't be flying out today; instead, we'll be visiting a drive-through clinic to have our first Covid test ever. 

Yes, we're a bit nervous, mainly about the unknown.  Will they really stick something clear up into our brain, AND will we both have positively negative results? 

We'll happily pass on the potential brain tease, but we'll be really happy to accept negative test results within the next 24 hours. 

Bill just noted that I probably don't have Covid because I sure could taste that English mustard at dinner.  Twas the kind that could really clear out whatever ails you. 

Hmmm.  Maybe to ensure a negative result on the Covid test, I should have eaten a bit more of that mustard.

Anywho, a negative on the Covid test will mean our ticket out of Ireland, allowing us to come back home.

We'll know a verdict by tomorrow.  

Yes, we have wondered why they let us come to Ireland with no Covid test but with proof of vaccination and why, to come back home, we have to be tested in a country with a much higher vaccination rate than the United States.

We do wonder these things, but we'll also follow the rules, as we have throughout the Pandemic.

After our test, we'll head south of Dublin and hang around Kildare for the day.  

Tomorrow we'll spend some time in the Wicklow Mountains before driving back to the airport where we'll stay the night.  

If our Verifly app is all complete, we'll be climbing aboard Aer Lingus on Thursday for a flight to Chicago and then a United nonstop flight to Spokane.

Verifly is an phone app which collects all necessary Covid-related health information.  

When the online form is complete, it gives each traveler a green light to go through a faster-moving line at check-in.

We're hoping for the same incredibly smooth and quick check-in the app provided for us in Chicago two weeks ago.  

All that said, I didn't take too many photos on yesterday's trip.  We did visit Malin Head (Ireland's northernmost point), and we drove through a portion of Northern Ireland.

We didn't think the latter was possible until we arrived here.  

No border crossings---you're just suddenly in another country and a few miles down the road, you're back in the Republic of Ireland AND back on your International data plan, which was set up for only the Republic of Ireland.

On these trips, we quickly learn that we must stay on our toes at all times with all details---especially keeping our electronics batteries in working order, having coins ready for toll roads and always remembering to have a mask handy any time we go indoors anywhere. 

As I've noted before, we have rarely seen anyone NOT wearing a mask in stores, restaurants, ferries, etc. 

And, so the trip is winding down, and the bureaucratic details of getting ready to go home are cropping up each day. 

Still, we plan to enjoy as much sight seeing as possible in the time we have left here. 

With my sixth trip and Bill's fifth to this place almost complete, we're already talking about "next time."

Ireland and its people are truly that alluring.

Happy Tuesday. 

Worth 184 million pounds today, and pounds are worth a lot more than dollars!

BTW:  I've also just learned from the morning BBC news about "champing aka camping in churches.

It's happening here in Europe.  

Republic of Ireland's northernmost point.