March 26th - arriving in Ireland

The wake up call came at 6am on the 26th, with a follow up on the TV at 615am, and my cell phone at 630a - I was NOT going to over sleep! I was told before I left that I needed to allow 2-3 hours at Heathrow for the check in process, so off I went to the Aer Lingus conter in Terminal 1. I got there at 730am only to be told that I could not check in for my 1050am flight (EI 375) until 830am at the earliest. I was not happy to know that I could have had an extra hour of sleep and didn't know it (ugh!). Here you have to check in using the kiosk first, then with the agent at the counter. Everything went smoothly, and I was in the gate area by 915am. The plane arrived late, so our departure was delayed until 1130am. Another uneventful flight - I took the opportunity and slept. No problems getting off the plane in Shannon - got my bag quickly, and met my parents in the main area of the airport (they had arrived in Ireland 2 days before). We went over to Dan Dooley and picked up the rental car (a silver 4 door .........................) went with an automatic, and paid for the extra insurance. Off we went---heading back towards Killarney. We stopped in Ardagh (County Limerick) at the Foley's Pub for lunch, then a quick stop at Tesco (grocery store) before going "home".

I had traded my timeshare in (through Interval International) and had booked a 3 bedroom/3 bath self-catering cottage outside of Killarney (in Aghadoe) at the Old Killarney Village (website www.oldkillarneyvillage.com), so this was to be our base for the next week. My parents had checked into the timeshare the day before, and said that the check in process was pretty painless. We were in cottage 32. There were 2 bedrooms (1 room with a double bed, 1 room with 2 twins) on the first floor, with 2 baths (1 ensuite), the kitchen (with laundry facilities and eating area), living room, TV and fireplace. The second floor had 2 twins in the loft area, and 1 double in the room (bathroom ensuite). It will sleep 8 people comfortably. I had the second floor all to myself. This was a great place - it was nice to have a home base where we didn't have to live out of our suitcases. The only thing I think was negative was the options of what to watch on TV. There were only a couple of stations that came in clearly. My dad and I got into watching "Coronation Street" as that was on several times during our stay.