Ripoffair

York Minster

Two weekends ago we flew to Leeds in England to drop off Anika so she can finish her semester abroad at the University of Leeds. We stayed over the weekend to see Leeds and explore the surrounding area. Leeds is nice, but (old) York is so close, a twenty-minute train ride, and there is so much to see there, that we spent the better part of two days there. You can view my pictures on picasa.

A tomb stone in a cemetery on the grounds of Leeds University. I've never seen the word reclict in that context. Also, what kind of stuff did he sell?

One disapointment were our flights. Ryanair was the only one that had direct flights between Dublin and Leeds, so we thought we would give them a try. Never again! They are known as a cheap airline which avoids the main airports and flies to the smaller and older ones, similar to Southwest in the States. It is popular with tourists because of the prices and those smaller airports sometimes happen to be actually closer to the beaches in southern Europe and are easier to get in and out of.

Maybe this used to be Thomas Callon's store. They sell stuff.

Ryanair is notorious for advertising flights for a couple of euro and then slapping on fees for everything imaginable until the price matches a regular airline ticket. The Irish government enacted a law to stop this and the advertised prices are now closer to what you'll eventually end up paying. Except in our case...

The city wall around York is still almost complete and you can walk on it around the perimeter of the old town.

Ryanair is often in the News. First about their misleading pricing practices and fees, then for thinking about letting passengers stand on short flights, making flight attendants co-pilots, or for requiring a credit card to use the on-board bathrooms.

From The Guardian

Of course, most of those are publicity stunts with no chance of getting implemented. I knew they had a bad reputation, but briefly researching them for this blog post made me realize how crappy and unsafe they are. Google "Ryanair News" and read about the various near misses they had only this year! The most recent one that showed up in my search has been reported on April 19, 2013. This weekend they are in the News for claiming charges were taxes they had to pass on to customers. Of course, a company like that is also not nice to their employees. They are accused of having their employees sign "slave contracts" and Ryanair may face a boycot over it in Norway.

Our trouble with Ryanair started in the morning flying out to Leeds. I couldn't get through security because I had the wrong boarding pass. Ryanair's web page printed both boarding passes, out and return, but we thought those were duplicates and grabbed only half of them. No big problem. Back to the checkin desk to have them print new ones. The agent told me there would be a fee and I would have to go to the ticket window to get them. First shock: 50 euro for repritning a boarding pass! That's more than a return ticket for that route, if you buy it early enough.

It's sorta getting Spring

After I paid the fee, got my handwritten receipt, I had to queue at another counter to have the missing boarding pass printed. Now it was almost too late for boarding. Lee Ann and Anika were already on the plane, and I was stuck in the security line. By the time I got to the gate, the door was closed and the gate agent had left.
The plane was still there, though, and its door was still open. I called Lee Ann and she charmed a flight attendant into coming to get me. I think the reason they were able to do that was the fog in Leeds and the one-hour wait for it to lift.

Another rite of Spring.

The 45-minute flight was uneventful. There was water dripping on me from somewhere (I think it was condensation, hopefully not water from the outside through a hole) and the door handle cover of the emergency exit kept falling off: the velcro had worn off. Food service was quick. The cheapest thing you could buy was a bottle of water for three euro. The service had to be quick, because there were also duty free things to be sold, smokeless cigarettes (after a brief announcement that they were not to be smoked on the plane or in the lavatories), and lottery tickets! The luggage compartments over our heads had large stickers on them, advertising apples from Spain.

When you go online to buy a ticket a barrage of ads begins and it is easy to click on something on that confusing web site that gets added to the ticket price. For example, we bought travel insurance by accident. And off course, amidst all this, you are supposed to read the detailed and complex rules. A woman who had to pay more than US $400 to have her boarding passes printed sued Ryanair in a Spansh court and won. Unfortunately, the ruling was later overturned.

I'd rather eat Kinky donuts than fry Ryanair ;-)

On our way back, I got hit a second time. Ryanair allows a single piece of luggage to be brought on board. Lee Ann was able to stuff her handbag into her duffel bag. I had my backpack with my laptop and camera equipment and a tiny bag for my clothes for three days. Both were full, and neither fit into the other. They made me check my bag: Another 70 euro down the drain! Never mind that this bag was not much bigger than two pair of rolled up jeans, nor that I had flown to Leeds with those two bags on board a Ryanair flight.

Live and learn and never fly Ryanair again, but watch out, they are headed for the US!

Connemara

We spent Easter weekend in Connemara, an area on the west side of Ireland. We got lucky: two of our three days there were sunny. Lee Ann remarked that that was the first time since she has moved here when it did not rain for a whole day. And we got two of those in a row! The third day was rainy, but even then we were able to get some cool pictures with a dark and mystic mood to them.

Maybe the mood was more misty than mystic, but I'm happy about how the pictures turned out anyway. You can see all of them on my Picasa album.

I know how the Easter bunny relates to Easter: It was the first animal Jesus saw when he came out of the tomb after his resurrection. But the association of lambs with Easter has always been a mystery to me; until now. Driving around Connemara, we saw a million sheep. And many of them had cute little lambs by their side. Easter is their season. By summer, they will all be teenagers in sheep years. Still not sure what all this has to do with Easter eggs, but I'm glad I solved one of the conundrums.

Irish sheep are pretty smart too. A fence is no match for the sheep's skill to get past it and conquer the roads. It seems the grass right next to the road tastes much better than the grass on the meadows behind the fences.

We did a lot of driving to cover a pretty large area. Some day it would be nice to go back and spend more time there and hike around more. Looking at the map to retrace the route we took, brings back chuckles and astonishment at these Irish town and place names.

Days 1: Dublin - Galway - Furbogh - Spiddal East - Spiddal Middle - Spiddal West - Screebe - Rosmuck - Kilkieran - Rusheennamanagh - Bunnahown - Cashel - Glenturkeen - Cloonacartan - Kylemore pass - Leenaun (Leenan).
We spent two nights in a charming old hotel in Leenan. Like many towns here, it has two names: An Irish one (Gaelic) and its Anglicization. We found it fun that it sounds almost like Lee Ann.

Kylemore Abbey

Day 2: Leenaun - Kylemore Abbey - Letterfrack - Letternoosh - Clifden - Gortrummagh - Belleek - Knockavally - Derrycunlagh - Roundstone - Errisbeg - Ballyconneely - Bunowen Beg - Bunowen More - Doonloughan - Clifden - Leenaun.

Roundstone

Day 3: Leenaun - Letterettrin - Gowlaun - Renvyle - Tully - Rusheenduff - Ardnagreevagh - Cloonlooaun - Derryinver - Ballinakill - Letterfrack - Leenaun - Munterowen - Rinavore - Kilmeelickin - Maum - Claggan - Comamona - Carrick Middle - Croaghrim - Clogher - Cong - Derryfadda - Clonbur - Comamona - Maam Cross - Derryerglinna - Oughterard - Tullyvealnaslee - Shanballymore - Currarevagh - Gorterwulla - Curraduff Middle - Curraun Beg - Oughterard - Gortrevagh - Knockkillaree - Ardnasillagh - Porridgetown East - Gortnagroagh - Rosscahill - Knockaunranny - Drimcong - Moycullen - Ballyquirke - Galway - Dublin.
Which one do you like best? I vote for Kilmeelickin, although Porridgetown and Letternoosh are cool too.

Bunowen castle

From the pictures you can tell it is a remote and barren landscape. I expected us to be the only ones visiting, but there were a fair number of tourists. It was not crowded, but we did run into one of my co-workers and his family at the Connemara National Park. The park is small and devoted to the bogs that are so common here and have given livelihood to the locals by providing them with fuel for heat, and grazing land for sheep and cattle. The bogs are also a rich source of folk tales, other tall stories, and artifacts that got buried, forgotten, and preserved by the nutrient-poor bog.

Bog tales in the national park museum (click to read)

This trip was a lot of fun in a beautiful landscape and cute little towns. It reminded me of one of the reasons we now live here in Ireland. Its an interesting and beautiful country. Unfortunately, it is usually wet and hidden under clouds.

Another reason for living in Ireland is that it is a two-hour trip away from Switzerland where we are this weekend. It is cold and cloud covered here as well. With some luck, however, I should get some pictures on that trip as well. Check back here!

The ruin of Renvyle castle