What's Going on at Aer Lingus? - August 21

Unfortunately, today is the last day of our European holiday. We left the hotel at 7:30 for a one hour drive to the Marseille Airport. We dropped off the tiny Smart Car at Auto Europe and were very pleased there wasn't an "inch by inch" inspection of the car as we have had in the past with Hertz.

Marseille Airport is small and after checking in we headed to the gate. Our Aer Lingus flight to Dublin was on an Airbus which seemed rather empty for such a big plane. Once we arrived in Dublin, we checked in at the information desk for our boarding passes and after being tempted with wonderful boxes of Irish sweets for sale, headed to the gate which seemed surprisingly empty. In fact, what is usually a mob scene, was replaced by a woman at the American Custom's desk calmly reading a magazine. Where were all the people we usually see on full flights to Boston? We soon had our answer. Aer Lingus had sent everyone on the flight an email last week to warn them of an impending pilot's strike and advised them to change their plans. As it turned out, not everyone, including us, had read the email, and the strike was called off. We therefore were delighted to learn that we had a brand new spotless Airbus almost completely to ourselves with room for everyone on the plane to take almost an entire row for themselves.

Before take off, the plane seemed to be spending a lot of time revving up its engines and we were told that due to a "technical problem" with the fuel pump we would be delayed. Thankfully, the technician sorted it all out and we were on our way. I must say it was our best flight ever!

"The Best Trip Ever"

Filled with happy memories
we head back home over the North Atlantic
sorry to leave such a beautiful place,
but knowing that we will return again.