Irish jokes but really arrival in London

 Unlucky Reader (who isn’t here), 

We are in London.  

In-laws arrived in Dublin, not much dopier than normal (as the joke in a moment will indicate).  

We then jumped on a plane to London.  The ride from Dublin to London is up and down — 50 minutes in the air.  

Bing bang and we were on the Express to Paddington (Butch made only 3 bear jokes, showing remarkable, okay, not really, restraint). Got in the taxi queue and across town to a little grocer who held the keys to the flat, then off to see some town. 

The big event of the day was high tea at The Wolseley, which is across the street from the Ritz.  Which got mentioned, as did Young Frankenstein (pronounced steen, OC) several times.   🙄

The Wolseley doesn’t want you taking pictures.  You know, Jeeves is above that.  Here’s the best photo we got of the 3-tiered thing full of our sandwiches and treats. 

It was great.  Butch and Peggy both enjoyed it, as, of course, their first high tea experience.  Peggy insisted on bringing the sandwiches home even though the only ones left were the smoked salmon, which (obviously) no one ate, so we not only drug home something that might would stink up everything but also  not be eaten. 🤢

Before we made it to Hyde Park (the Ritz sits on the north side), we walked through Regent’s Park.  The highlight, OC, is their rose collection.  RR took many pictures.  Here’s one that shows several colors.

After eating, we took the tube one stop to Westminster for “touristy stuff.”  I got yelled at for crossing on a  red light (🙄).  The bells at the Abbey were ringing, Butch wondered if they were stuck (another eye roll, they may become a think where you take a drink every time).  Big Ben wasn’t chiming.

Then home for a quick game of euchre.  We ended the even early, after we came back on them (couples vs couples) from a deep deficit. 

And that was that. 

Those of you who have read this blog for years know that Butch is infamous for trying to be funny.  I told him only the best ones, ONE, will make in the blog.  I’m not sure about best, but he came to breakfast yesterday in Dublin loaded for the trip.  He announced this was an Irish joke. 

Stop if you are going to be offended bc it definitely isn’t SFW. 

The short version.  Englishman, Scot and Irishman are talking, bragging about their local pub.  When they get to the Irishman, he says at my local you get all the free pints you want and then they take you upstairs and you have sex.  The Englishman and the Scot don’t believe him.  “And this has happened to you?” “No,” Paddy says, “but it has a lot to my sister.”

The bar is set. 

Come to Sweden…for the sunburn?!?!

 So, dear Reader, 

Here we are again.  Adventure XXX.  Hang onto your seats, bc many days I’m not going to know where I am. 

I am writing this on a British Airways flight from Dublin to London.  We are in London till Sunday, which is (do the math) days. 

But we’ve already done stuff. 

We will leave airport/transportation stories till later, okay?

Due to $$$ we flew to Dublin via Stockholm on SAS.  Which is a perfectly good airline.  We had 11 hours in Stockholm.  The express train was 18 minutes to the center of town.

So, without a night’s sleep, we dumped our carryon luggage in a locker and away we went to town.

We will never forget this: it was 87 and sunny in Stockholm.  I didn’t know it did such things (it’s kinda north and it’s more famous for skating on the Baltic Sea there than heat), but it was brutal.  

We hopped on the hop on-hop off bus (get it?) outside the train station and away we went. 

The city hall was amazing.  Then we came to the palace, where guards stood in sentry boxes like someone really lived there.  Here’s our guard picture.  And a palace fountain pic. 

Wiki travel said “see this,” so we hopped off there and walked 500 meters (yeah it takes some figuring out) to the medieval church which has a six or seven syllable name.  We didn’t pay the 6€ To investigate. 

After a cooling drink and appetizer, back to the bus. 

There was an ABBA museum.  🙄

Stockholm is a lovely city (see pic), full of lakes and the Baltic Sea — the Venice of the North as the tour guide told us. :) It also, purposefully, reminds one of Paris, with some tree-lined avenues.  

And, having made the circuit, we were back on the express to the airport and Dublin.

Where we got a free Guinness (there’s Karen’s first attempt at the challenge) and finally found a pizza-pasta place for dinner at almost 10 their time. 

And then to sleep, up, showered and to the airport for 8 AM.  Rah rah. 

Okay, airport things: Newark airport is a poorly designed disaster.  The SAS “circle” (bc its organized in circular pods) had four flights leaving at almost the same time so there were a thousand plus people waiting to jam onto the huge planes.  Ours ran late, which meant we mixed more with the crowd going to Vienna than we were really supposed to.  We were delayed an hour, not an announced delay, but just “we’re standing around and waiting” thing. 

Finally we got on the plane and the kid in front and behind us yelled for lengthy parts of the 8 hour trip.  Isn’t that what soma is for? :)

The trip to Dublin was almost as bad as Stockholm airport had people lined up as they came in! They weren’t allowing people up to the departure hall until less than 3 hours before their flight!  Crazy stuff.  And the kids around us were apeshit…the one in front of us spent a large part of the 2 hour flight on the floor in the aisle.🙄 

Our taxi driver to the airport this morning, an unhappy Irishman named Paul, said it was the busiest year he’d ever seen — it wasn’t just Americans “it’s everyone.  Everyone wants to get out after Covid.”  He also had a quick rundown of American politics and policy. :) 

And that was day one and ????  Like I said, YOU do the math.  I do think it’s Wednesday, Pooh Bear.