Ireland - First impression
We arrived in Ireland yesterday to start the Best of Ireland small groups tour. The tour does not officially start for a couple more hours with the reception.
Since there has been quite a few discussions about masking and Covid etc. on this forum I thought I would post some initial observations.
So far in Ireland masking has been almost non existent. Very few people are masking. My guess is less than 5%. I can’t say anything about our tour since that has not started.
Dublin is crowded with tourists. We usually like to do our travel during the shoulder or off season but do to some personal logistics, we scheduled this mid summer tour.
Ireland is hot right now. At least here in Dublin. (Hot by Irish standards and us who live in the Northwest US). I only brought one pair of shorts so I had to buy another one today.
My wife and I will post a full review upon our return in a few weeks.
Comments
Have a great time John. Take good care this trip 😉
Just last summer you had temperatures over 100 in the Seattle area (I was there). You're heat veterans!
Have a good trip.
Smiling Sam - Last summer 109 official at SeaTac 112 on our back yard gauge. I guess I shouldn’t complain about the Irish temperature.
If you don’t like the weather just wait 15 min. is what they supposedly say in Ireland. 🥵
AlanS: They say that in the Seattle area too, so I guess we fit right in. 😀🍺
I lived in Seattle for 50 years, I'd say that wait 15 minutes is more like wait 6 months if you're in the October to April gray drizzle period.
I grew up in Cork, Ireland and a nice day in summer would be an absolute joy. We had a cottage in the country where we would go for our summer holidays and I remember how often it just rained and rained. We had no air conditioning in any of our homes so I guess in a way it was better otherwise we would be very uncomfortable. I don't think that many people have air conditioning even today.
Now that is like Seattle!
The other piece of this for Ireland is that bug screens on the windows don't seen to be common so if you open them for some cooler air you'll make new friends.
My three favorites things about living in an American home are, A/C, screens and an automatic garage door opener 😂😂😂😂
As another saying goes, “People in Seattle don’t tan, they rust!” 😲
I spent many years on Whidbey Island, and can attest to Sam’s comment. Up there we had the Olympic mountains to our west which caused the weather to go up and over the Island (and generate feet of snow in the northern cascades.)! Tacoma and S. Seattle had no such effect.
Still not to rusty after 30 years. But there is a rain forest on the Olympic Peninsula in the Olympic National Park, Hoh Rainforest, with close to 12 feet of rain a year.
And more than 15’ of snow pack on Mt Baker, but hardly any (1 or 2 light ones per winter) snow on Whidbey, just light drizzle all winter long. A typical winter flight weather forecast- 1500’ scattered, 5000’ broken, 8000’ overcast. Once we broke through the overcast it was “CAVU to the moon”- ceiling and visibility unlimited! We could see, Mt Rainier, Mt St Helen’s and Mt Hood, almost 300 miles away!