Adventures and Misadventures on Our Overseas Trip

Looking back after returning home from our trip overseas, we smile when we think about all the things we enjoyed doing and seeing - and we cannot help but also smile when we remember the crazy things that didn't work out according to the detailed plan Scott had made for our trip.

Kristine, Shannon, Jenna, Narene, and Scott

in Northern Ireland by the beach.

(Sam took the picture.)

The first thing that did not work out was having Brittney and Matt cancel their flight to Ireland after Monty broke his leg.  Accidents do happen, and we are just glad it wasn't anything worse; but we would have enjoyed having them with us. 

Scott had called us from Denver as they were leaving for the airport the morning of Thursday, June 26th, for their flight to London.  Our flight wasn't until about 8:00 that evening the same day out of Salt Lake City; and we were scheduled to meet up with Scott, Kristine, Jenna, and Shannon in London as we transferred for the flight to Belfast.  However, their plane in Denver was delayed due to a storm of hail and wind, which made them miss their connecting flight in Houston.  Arrangements were made to board a later flight, but rain and flooding postponed takeoff; and after sitting in the plane for four hours, the flight was cancelled due to the rule that the flight crew is limited to the number of hours to be on duty and there were no replacements available.  Scott's family had to overnight in Houston.  

When Sam and I arrived at the Heathrow airport in London, it was jam packed with passengers.  Even though an airline representative tried to expedite us through the faster lane, we could not make our scheduled flight to Belfast after going through customs and security. We had two carry-ons and just one bag to check; but they closed the baggage check-in 45 minutes before departure time, which deadline we missed by about 15 minutes.  The next two flights were full, and we opted to stay overnight in London and take a morning flight rather than get into Belfast late at night with no one meeting us.  At the reservation desk, we were able to call Scott to let him know we missed our flight and would be flying to Belfast the next morning; and we found out from Scott about their missing their flight.

Expecting to meet up with Scott's family at the London airport on Saturday, we kept watching for them to board the plane with us; but they had not made their scheduled departure time due to rain and flooding in Houston.  Scott had planned to pick up a rental car in Belfast for all of us to drive to Londonderry; so when we landed in Belfast, we wondered what we should do next.  Trent, who had flown to Ireland on Wednesday, had driven to Belfast to meet our plane on Friday; but since we had not been able to take that flight due to our luggage situation, other arrangements had to be made for someone to meet us the next morning, only we didn't know what those arrangements were.  As we exited the airport, it was nice to hear someone ask, "Are you the Irelands?"  It was a relative of Jessica's who drove us to the train and got us ticketed for the ride to Londenderry where we were welcomed by Trent and Jessica's mother and driven to Jessica's home to meet the rest of the family.  Scott's family did not make it until the next day.

Once in Ireland, things went more smoothly according to schedule; and we enjoyed being there for Trent and Jessica's wedding (see the previous blog entry for wedding photos).

  

 

 Jessica's home in Northern Ireland

where we were warmly welcomed.

We have happy memories of our visit in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.  Jenna and Shannon were with us on this part of the itinerary, but they flew back to the U.S. from London on June 5th.

Shannon and Jenna at the 

Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland

Actually, Sam and I ended up returning to the U.S. on the 6th of June.  We didn't make it to Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, and Italy - all part of the itinerary Scott had so thoroughly planned for June 5 to June 11.  When we went to board for Zurich on the afternoon of June 5th (our anniversary!), they would not let Sam on the plane.  The expiration date on my passport was for 2020, but Sam's passport expired at the end of August 2016.  The lady explained that although his passport was valid in the United Kingdom, the EU required a passport to have at least six-months before the expiration date (some have said 90 days); and she would not let Sam on the plane.

Sam and I said our goodbyes to Scott and Kristine, who boarded the plane for their adventure in Europe before flying home to Denver on June 11th; so we will have to be content with seeing their photos.

 The next five photos were taken at the

 Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, 

the result of an ancient volcanic eruption.

 

Shannon, Jenna, Kristine, and Scott

 The Giant's Causeway is about 

25 miles northeast of Londonderry.

The stone pillars each typically have 

five to seven irregular sides.

 

 It is situated along four miles of the northern coast

of Northern Ireland.

Sam and Narene
by some of the taller pillars.
There were coins stuck between several of the cracks here. 

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 Dunseverick Castle
 When the first fortification was built on this site is unknown. 
The site however was a "key" ancient site in Ireland. 
One of the royal roads from Tara, seat of the Kings of Ireland, ended here;
  so probably a stone fort preceded Dunseverick Castle.

Dunluce Castle

 Some of the castle remains at Dunluce may date back to the 1200s AD,

but much of the Castle was built after that time. 

At the end of the 1500s and through the 1600s, 

extensive additions were made to its fortifications and residential quarters.

Londenderry Wall

This is the only remaining completely walled city in Ireland

and one of the finest examples of walled cities in Europe.

The walls were built during the period 1613-1618 as defenses

for early seventeenth century settlers from England and Scotland.

They form a walkway around the inner city. 

Tommy's Fish and Chips
 This is a take-out place, and the portions were big and tasty.

We went to church here on Sunday, May 29th;
and the wedding was here the next day.
(Trent, Shannon, Kristine, Jenna, Sam and Narene) 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

I had an unexpected incident happen to me on the plane flying to Ireland.  After reading on my Kindle, I decided I should try to get some sleep.  Earlier, Sam had watched something on the TV screen at his seat but was now asleep. The next thing I remember was feeling sick and asking Sam to move so I could get past him to go to the restroom where I felt I might throw up.  Sam let me out but was kind of groggy and sat back down and closed his eyes. The next thing he remembers was opening his eyes and being aware of something happening ahead in the aisle where a couple of flight attendants were helping someone.  That someone was me who had passed out in the aisle before reaching the restroom.  Being helped up and back to where Sam was, I realized I needed to sit down quickly and asked him to move over and let me sit in his aisle seat.  As he was trying to move over onto my seat, I was apparently having trouble standing and the flight attendants helped me to go to the back of the plane where they asked a passenger to move out of one seat.  This left three vacant seats; and after moving the armrests down, this became my bed for the rest of the trip to London.  They gave me portable oxygen to breathe, water to drink, covered me with a blanket, and checked on how I was doing from time to time.  I had the best "seat" on the plane for the remainder of the flight! 

Prior to boarding the plane, Angela Larson, a member from our ward choir that practices in our home each Sunday, was surprised to see we were waiting to get on the same plane she and her mother-in-law and her two little daughters were going to board to go to London.  After the incident with my passing out, she told Sam the same thing had happened on this plane to her mother-in-law who had also fainted.  The flight attendants told Sam it was not uncommon for passengers to faint during these long, overnight flights; but it certainly had never happened to me. 

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The next blog entry will have photos from our visit in Scotland.