Some of you may recall my 2004 report from the Athens Olympics. Haven't been back since then, so you'll see quite a few photos from Athens as this report progresses.

From 2004:
AA/IB to the 2004 Olympic Games (with swimming updates on Natalie)

Day 1

I'm on a paid $550 AA ticket for the round trip to Dublin, and a separate UA award to/from Athens which zeros out my UA account after 24 years with them. Long list of reasons I'm not flying UA but won't go into them here.

Departed SFO at 2:40pm on for DFW. Flight time was 3 hours and I watched a movie on my tablet on the way down (12 O’Clock High with Gregory Peck). My lunch choice was a very good cheese tortellini.



After about an hour in the Admiral's Club lounge, off to the gate in the D terminal at DFW for the 9:55pm departure. The business class cabin was half-empty earlier in the day, but apparently a British Airways flight at LAX was cancelled and some passengers were rerouted on AA via DFW. Business was sold out.

My dinner choice was blackened salmon and for dessert a raspberry torte. Tablets and Bose headsets were handed out and I listened to CDs by Boston and America. About 2 hours after departure, I was asleep and probably slept 5 hours.





Day 2

Woke up about 90 mins before arrival at London Heathrow and had scrambled eggs over buttermilk biscuits for breakfast.



Flight time was 9 hours and we landed at 1p.m. local time. Had to transfer from T3 to T5 bus bus. Enough time for a 45 min BA lounge visit for cold drinks, then a 3:30pm departure on British Airways to Dublin, landing at 4:50p m. After clearing passport control and baggage claim, I caught the express airport bus down to O’Connell Street and was at my hotel about 6:30pm. I'm at the Maldron Hotel off Parnell Square on a 56 euro rate ($63.50). On check in I was offered the option to pay in dollars or euros and was presented a quote for dollars which was about 3-4% higher than the euro bank rate. Needless to say, I never pay in dollars when traveling as I have a credit card with no foreign exchange and this is something I'm always on the alert for.



High temp in Dublin on Wed was 7C/45F. Didn’t feel that cold. Headed out just before 8 for dinner on O’Connell Street at a cafe that always has dinner specials. Tonight they had shepherd’s pie and a soft drink for 8.5 euros ($9.65). There was a fish and chips place a few doors down with similar prices. Dollar is strongest it’s been in 13 years.



Walked around Temple Bar. My favorite place there, Porterhouse Brewing Company, was sparsely occupied, though it may be that music wasn’t ready to start at 9. Whole area seemed pretty quiet tonight. I was back at my hotel just after 10 and called it a night.

GPO on O'Connell Street (General Post Office) which has a lot of history attached to it relating to Irish independence:



In Temple Bar:







And, finally, a shout out my friend Mike in Tokyo who will appreciate this
sign:



Dublin photos start here:
http://tom911.smugmug.com/Travel-Ire...ublin-Ireland/