Todays schedule? Up at 3:30 a.m. to get to the Dublin airport, and then a full day of travel (with a 4 hour layover in Toronto) and economy-class seats back to Vancouver. The bonus will be hugs when we finally get there!
☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️
An unauspicious start. Everyone up and ready to leave the hotel by 4:45 a.m. as requested, when we discovered that our entire group’s flight to Toronto has been delayed by 2-1/2 hours. Oh well – that still leaves a 90 minute layover in Toronto, IF our connecting flight is not also delayed, which should be plenty of time to clear customs, especially since we’ve already completed our ArriveCan declarations.
Whether this delay is due to the smoky air quality in Ontario due to raging wildfires in Quebec, or the 3 weeks running “Thursday curse” of Air Canada’s computer systems, we don’t (yet) know.
UPDATE: As we were in the bus en route to Dublin International, we got an email from Air Canada informing us that we’d been bumped onto the 10:15 a.m. DIRECT flight to Vancouver. It’s so rare that we get GOOD news from our national carrier that it is worth celebrating. Kudos, Air Canada! You made our day!!
Looking back at our time here, one of the things we’ll remember is the absolutely incredible weather we had for our trip: 12 out of 14 days of sunshine and absolutely summery temperatures! The forecast has the much more normal “liquid sunshine” in it starting tomorrow, after we’re gone.
Overall, though, we’ll be looking back at our overall experience with somewhat mixed feelings. Ireland was full of interesting places, gorgeous scenery, friendly people, and tons and tons of history that was new to us (courtesy of some truly excellent local tour guides), and we’re glad to have been part of all of that. But … the tour’s day-to-day organization – and the dining venues and menus – definitely did not live up to what we’ve come to expect from Senior Discovery Tours. There will be lots of feedback to give to SDT once we have time to collate it.
In the meantime, we’ll be happy to get back to kids and grandkids, and preparing to welcome my German cousins to Canada in just a few days. I’ll get the chance to see whether I can be a decent tour organizer!
British Columbia adventures await us.
Rose and Ted’s Excellent Adventure 
I did reply to this. Don’t know if I was able to send it to you. You have been an amazing tour guide through all your travels for the sta-at-homes in your life. Again … thank you Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx!
But I vividly remember how you brought Collingwood to life as an amazing, interesting, city full of history. Looking forward to your book !!
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Safe travels. Hope the layover in YYZ goes well.
Hugs…
B.
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