In the wee hours of Tuesday, April 15, we drove to Shannon Airport where we returned our rental car, after 985 miles and the Tom-Tom, a gift of flawless navigation, to Hertz. She has made 48 miles to the gallon, convincing us that a diesel was a good choice. The Hertz station manager gave us a quick ride to the terminal where we checked in with Aer Lingus for our connecting flight from Shannon to Heathrow.
After check-in, we stopped for our last Irish breakfast and a bit of last minute shopping (boxes of Irish chocolates). We debated whether to also buy and ship a lovely Irish woolen throw but decided to do that from home should we still want to when we got there.
After a long bus ride and two security stops in Heathrow, we boarded our connecting flight for home. Our side-by-side flat bed business class seats allowed us to make a final toast over lunch. John toasted to "home--where the heart is" and I toasted to "doing it well" in tribute to an excellent trip. We never got lost. We were able to do everything we planned and a lot that was serendipitous. We managed the weather and only once got soaking wet. We enjoyed the people of Ireland and we enjoyed ourselves.
We agreed to the following Top Ten list:
--Fiddling lessons with Cathy McAvoy
--The Lough Corrib boat ride and terrific crew
--Visiting with Ken and Anna Johnson of Comber, North Ireland
--Searching for and finding "Ancient Things"
--Visting Titanic Belfast
--Walking to The Giant's Causeway
--Connemara, with its splendid mountains and magical valleys
--The Farm Restaurant in Dublin
--Cooking an Irish dinner
--Playing the fiddle at the Cliffs of Moher
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