Day 3...May 12 (Monday) Getting our act together

The fact we are in Ireland at this precise time is because we will participating in a tour of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland between now and Friday of next week. The organizers of the tour, Tracy Balzer and her husband, Cary, are on the staff at John Brown University, where I graduated from in 1968 (last century), and our daughter Joy and her husband, Mark Stoner, in the earlier years of this century. They flew from Newark to Belfast during the night and arrived shortly after 9 a.m. The plan was for us to meet them about noon at the hotel, and this was confirmed in a conversation via cell phone about 10:30. They were on the “motorway” from the airport headed for the hotel.

We left the house about 11:15 and Joan took us the 45 min. from Ballymena to our scheduled rendevous at the hotel in Belfast. The countryside could have been the green rolling hills of Arkansas. We were at the hotel at the appointed time, but no sign of the group. After 45 minutes, hunger devoured the remainder of our patience, and as all attempts at contact via cell phone failed, we decided to leave a note to say we were going for a walk and a bite to eat, and we would meet them at the hotel at 2 p.m.

We strolled a few blocks, had some Irish stew (90% chunks of lamb, 10% chunks of potato or carrots…but very tasty), and strolled back to the hotel, arriving right at 2:00. No, we were informed by the reception, “the group has not arrived yet.” We sat down and read a newspaper in the lobby; a sudden doubt---were we sure we had the right hotel? There had been a change of hotels at some point of the tour, and we could only wonder. I reconfirmed the information: yes, a group registered under the name of Tracy Balzer, occupying 5 rooms had reservations. Might as well have a coffee, we thought. Of course, I had no sooner poured my first cup out of the thermos-like pitcher of coffee than the van drove up.

Reason for delay: roadwork on the A2 highway, which Joan knew about, so she took us the “long way” through Belfast. As we suspected, they missed the turn they had been looking for, ended up out of town, decided to have lunch out there. Reason for not answering my calls: she didn’t have minutes purchased on the UK cell phone accounts. She could see I was calling, but couldn’t answer the phone.

All’s well that ends well. After all the group had gotten installed in their rooms, we walked through a botanical garden and the adjoining campus of Queen’s University (shown here behind our leaders, Cary and Tracy. We then sat down to a meal of fish and chips. I think most of the others came back to the hotel and hit the sack after their long trip; Abbie and I walked another hour or so, taking in the sights of Belfast at the end of a beautiful day. Who said it’s always raining in Belfast?