APRIL 20 - So...up at 05:30, plan is to get the car out of the lot at 06:15 and to the ferry well before the end of check in at 07:15. Have some trouble locating the car in the parking structure, and then, on the street, discover that Janet’s phone failed to save today’s routings due to a Google map update that ran itself sometime during the night. The ferry dock isn’t very far away and rush hour hasn’t started yet, so just use the raw map feature and feel our way through the one way street system. Almost there but miss a turnoff and end up on the freeway heading back out of Dublin. Go through a 3 km tunnel and have no exit for several more km. By the time we are able to orient, we are well west of town and have to go back through the center, now thick with traffic. Well past the last check in time, finally get to the entrance and are one of the last cars on. Barely get up the stairs to the chair decks before we are heading out of port. Major early morning stress that can only be now viewed with ambivalence because it worked out in the end.
On Stena Lines now rather than Irish Ferries. Huge difference between the two, in that the Stena Line is a much larger boat and has plenty of seating, plus a playground for Odette. Sunny day with barely a cloud. Most registration plates on the car deck are from the UK.
Startling news of the day: To send a letter out of Ireland, the postage rate is over 2 Euros! That is almost twice the US rate.
