The saga begins

Okay, so the weekend trip to Antwerp via Brussels and Dublin didn't really start out the best.

First off, we take a plane to Dublin from Galway. This is a pretty small plane. And there happens to be a virtually constant windstorm in Western, if not all of, Ireland. The plane wasn't bad, but it wasn't the best.

So we get to Dublin and go to the parking lot to find the shuttle to our hotel. The "Days Hotel Dublin Airport". Remember this name and particularly the location moniker. We find the hotel shuttle area and start to wait for the shuttle. Luckily we decide to call the hotel to verify the existence in said shuttle. They say 'no, we don't have a shuttle you have to take a cab'. Alright, this is an airport hotel, how far can it be?

Well, 25 Euros and a 15 minute taxi ride later in addition to the 20 minute taxi queue we made it to the hotel. Obviously I was now not pleased since we passed any number of actual airport hotels. Calling the Days Inn an 'airport hotel' would be like calling the Newcastle Motor Inn a Seatac Airport hotel. While it might be close, it isn't. And you drive by 20 other places on the way.

But this is not the worst, as when I inquired at the front desk the taxi ride should have been around 15 Euros. Our taxi was one of these taxi's that did not prominently, if at all, display the meter. This has not happened to us since our days in Mexico. But yes, we got worked.

Of course I did ask for a receipt. After fumbling around in the front seat for about 30 seconds, the cab driver said he was out of receipts and could he just write the total on the back of his business card. What choice did I have?

Needless to say, the trip hasn't started to well. As for the Days Inn, the hotel is actually nice when you take the location out of the equation. I also walked/jogged about one mile to the closest store in order to buy a bottle of wine for tonight. This was the surprise of the night. I bought a single vineyard Aussie wine. Nothing surprising here, except the grape was 'Durif'. I had never heard of it and wanted to try it. I got the wine home after another mile walk in the driving rain tempered by 50 mph winds and the bottle was fabulous! It totally turned around my night.

Now we are getting ready for bed since we have to catch another, hopefully cheaper, cab at 5:30 AM. We are watching my DVD of West Wing Season 2. We have started over on the series and are watching them again. This is really a good show, I highly recommend it.

As for the durif grape, I googled it and it turns out that the grape is what the Californians call Petite Sirah. Not to be confused with Syrah or Shyraz, this is a unique grape. But the kicker is that some of the best wine for the dollar bottles that we have had from Napa Valley and all of California are Petite Sirah's. I had no idea it was grown anywhere else.

My research:
Durif grape info
http://www.psiloveyou.org/

Let's hope that tomorrow brings a better travel experience.

Due to a little internal Tobin squabble, this post will be corrected for Grammar by new Grammar editor, Michael D. Tobin