Arklow Castle, enroute to Cork
Coastal view just outside of Ballyhack
Dunbrody Abbey Ruins
On Wednesday morning, we flew into Dublin, with Marian and Alban. Flying to Ireland was the easy part ... our flight arrived ahead of schedule, just before 9am, but that's when the easy part of the travel experience ended:
1. the queue for non-EU passports was ridiculously long;
2. when we finally got through passport control, we went directly to baggage reclaim (for Alban & Marian - Andy and I had carry on luggage), however, there was no marked Ryanair luggage carousel from Birmingham so we had to go on a hunt for their luggage - thankfully we found it at the RyanAir baggage control desk (sitting there, waiting to be claimed);
3. whereupon we joined another ridiculously long queue at the Enterprise car rental counter (while manned by 2 Enterprise staff members, for whatever reason, they could only process 1 car rental at a time). When we finally arrived at the counter to have our reservation filled, an Enterprise staff member advised one of their staff had called in sick and consequently, they were short staffed. They suggested we proceed directly outside the airport and take the shuttle bus to the Enterprise car lot where staff at that location could help us out with the paperwork and provide us with the car (why in the world they allowed us to stand in line waiting to arrive at the counter to make this suggestion is beyond me!)
4. so off we go, and joined yet another queue, waiting 20 min for the shuttle to arrive, and when it did, it could only take 8 people! The driver said another shuttle would be on its way, so Andy and Marian went ahead. Alban and I waited for the next shuttle;
5. big surprise: there was only 1 shuttle; the same driver pulled up some 25 min. later! Some pushy American people jumped the queue; thankfully the driver recognized us and made room for us on the shuttle van. Upon arriving at the Enterprise car lot (about a 10 min. run from the airport, I might add), Andy and Marian were at the counter, just completing the paperwork for the car;
6. Some 2 and 1/2 hours after arriving at Dublin International Aiport, we were on our way!
We headed onto the highway to make our way to Cork, stopping along the way; a few of the views are captured in the photos above.
Thursday morning brought better weather. Andy and I went for an early morning stroll and took the photo below of Cork City: 
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