RV Having Fun Yet?: Done In in Dublin

We left Chicago a bit late. Not because anything was wrong, but because we would arrive in Dublin way too early if we left on time. The jet stream was “ripping”, as one person in the boarding line commented, and the captain came on during the flight and said we had a 150 mile-per-hour tailwind, putting our airspeed at somewhere north of 700 miles per hour. “That is about the fastest I’ve ever flown,” he marveled.

So, even though we sat on the tarmac after leaving the gate for a while to kill some time, we will be in Dublin early.

The plane we are on, the Boeing 787-800, has some special significance for me. I was part of the design team for the dimmable windows on this aircraft. Instead of pull-down shades, the windows use an electrochromic material between layers of glass that darken when energized with an electric current. Press a button and the glass darkens, like programmable sunglasses. It was a fun project and me and my buddy and engineer co-worker, Dave, together wrote most of the software code that runs in the controller for these windows. This project included such perks as traveling with the team in the company Lear jet to Seattle to participate in design reviews. During these trips we got the grand tour of the Boeing plant, crawling around in the equipment bays of partially-finished airplanes and riding through the shuttle tunnels underneath the cavernous assembly plant. We also ate out in the rotating restaurant atop the Space Needle.

That was nearly 20 years ago.

Those 20 years have not been kind to the windows. As we were finding our seat when boarding the aircraft, I could see that all the windows had a dingy yellowish tint to them, and some were unevenly darkened, appearing to be almost cloudy in spots, particularly around the edges, the cloudiness being brown in color. Last time I flew this route on this aircraft a bunch of years ago, the glass was perfectly clear.

At least my part of the project, the software code that managed all the communications between the windows and the flight attendant station, worked flawlessly.

We touched down in Dublin early, as expected, and sat on the tarmac for nearly a half hour, waiting for the gate to clear. Customs was a breeze, taking all of two minutes. We were a bit concerned about customs as friends of ours have gotten the run-around from customs and border staff who are incensed about the ever-changing tariff policy of the United States. But, so far, Ireland has been very friendly.

It took us a while to figure out the bus system. We walked back and forth between several different landings at the airport, trying to find the bus going downtown. A friendly hotel shuttle driver finally explained it to us with rather expressive gestures, and we were able to get on the right bus.

It took over an hour to get to our destination, due to many stops and slow traffic. But we are finally here, after many hours of travel, at the Kilronan House, our home for the next three days.

We chose the Kilronan House because of its location, being near many of the attractions we want to see over the next few days, and because they are supposed to serve a good breakfast (you knew it would come down to food, right?).

It is also a historic bed and breakfast, located in the Georgian Quarter of Dublin City Center. One of the unique features of the Georgian Quarter, which Deb pointed out, is long rows of buildings with brightly colored doors. Each door is a different color, making them stand out against the brick building facade.

I would have taken a picture of our room but we made a mess of it before I thought of it, spreading our stuff out and then laying down for a short rest.

Lunch was a sandwich assembled from a nearby grocery store, and then we walked to the Ireland National Gallery, about a half-mile from here. One of the main attractions of the National Gallery is a Caravaggio Madonna, a painting of a ragged pilgrim couple' kneeling by the apparition of the Virgin Mary who is holding the toddler, Jesus. We learned quickly, however, that this painting is now in Rome, so we could only see it in a picture online.

We browsed a bunch of other exhibits at the gallery, but started back to the Kilronan House because I was about to topple over. Not getting any sleep last night was catching up to me, fast.

The route to the gallery passes by an enormous government complex and we were told that the prime minister can be seen there occasionally. One gate was interestingly labelled the Ministry of Expenditure. I wonder what that is all about. That’s kind of what government already does, with out requiring a cabinet-level position to manage it.

We took a short nap before venturing out again, looking for a place to eat. We settled on the Damascus Gate, a Syrian restaurant not far from us. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of opportunity to have pub food in the smaller towns, so we’ll branch out in Dublin. Turns out, this was a good choice. The food was excellent although the waiter tried to pressure us to purchase appetizers, sharing platters, and dessert a little too much. The main course was quite enough to fill us up.