Work-Trip to Spain and Ireland

Goodbye Iceland, for now!

Photo taken before take-off. My colleague travels a lot more than I do, and thus has access to the fancy (new!) Icelandair lounge at Keflavik airport. Yay!

We stopped at Paris Orly…

Food at Paris Orly, one of the most confusing airports I’ve ever been to.

Leaving Paris Orly airport.

Approaching Madrid.

Waiting in the baggage claim in Madrid.  Where were our bags…?

It turned out that Paris Orly could not get our luggage from one terminal to the next in one hour, so our luggage didn’t make it!

We filed our missing luggage notification, and then drove to our hotels. Due to myself being added to the trip at a late date, we ended up in two different, but almost adjacent, hotels. This is my Ibis room.  The carpet was very unimpressive, but the bed was comfortable, which my colleague told me, was rare in the area.

The bathroom.

My view was straight out over a freeway, but the windows were very soundproof.

At least the weather was very nice! We then ended up going to a nearby mall to eat dinner, and buy the bare necessities to survive until the next day.

Receipts for the bare necessitates!

A new day!

Part of the pretty good hotel breakfast.  There were cut up fruits, bread, things to put on bread, etc.

That afternoon we drove to the airport to collect our luggage.  Apparently “lost luggage” gets put on the conveyor to this particular carousel, meaning it appears whenever the luggage of an actual flight makes an appearance.  Thus we had to wait for some flight from Dubai to arrive!

Finally!

Getting my piece of paper stamped.

Since the day was useless anyway, from a work perspective, we ended up driving into Madrid proper for a quick peek.

The nice rental! The city turned out to be too warm to really walk around in much, so we drove back south to our hotels.

Once the sun had set, I went out on a walk. I decided to follow an Ingress “mission” which led me to the campus of a nearby university.  This, however, is a playground opposite my hotel.

Looking back at my hotel.

Pretty waterfall.

University signage.

Campus statue. It felt cozy being on a campus again.

Panorama of an entrance

New-ish building.

I was a few minutes late to finish my mission, as the campus grounds closed at 10 pm, and the last two locations were located just inside of a closed gate! I was so bummed! Here though is the waterfall I passed earlier, but now without water.

Finally, we had all of our work gear! This is my breakfast. I’ve learnt to eat a rather large one, to sustain me over long workdays.  I get royally cranky when I get hungry…!

Our lunch place was obviously popular with the locals, since the menu was in Spanish only!

Lunch turned out to be a tuna-steak, in a cut I’ve never seen before. It was good though!  The tomato salad we had as a starter was much less great, as it was just canned-is tomatoes and a lot of onions!

Since we’d lost so much time with our luggage arriving late, the remaining days were nothing but work, long into the evening. Thus no photos got taken besides of the food! Here is a huge burger we had for a late lunch.  The bread is covering just how bulky it was. 🙂

My flight to Dublin, Ireland, left at 11 on Friday morning.

I was perhaps, a wee bit tired, as the two previous days had been quite long and hectic.

Goodbye Spain!

Hello Ireland!

The weather in Ireland was gorgeous! Thankfully the temperature was a lot more comfortable than in Spain.

My hotel room, after we’d driven north to N-Ireland in our non-air-conditioned rental car.  The trip was a little too toasty for my taste.

The bathroom. The crowning jewel was the towel drying radiator, which was great!

The hotel was located in a mini-mall/petrol station off of a motorway. My room is there on the second floor on the far right of the image.

The view from my window.

Saturday was busy work-wise, so lunch was a late one.

About to get food!

Omg!

This cafe is in a shopping center, so there’s always a lot of people there.

Lunch!

Part of the shopping center parking lot. It was damp outside.

The view from our lunch place. Getting lunch on a Sunday in Ireland is tricky, as a lot of places tend to be closed! We’d eaten there before, and they’d fixed up the large house on the left since we were there last time.

A pretty sunset at the end of the day.

I only took photos for work that day, but Finnur sent me this one of Emma!  This is how she eats “sushi”, apparently.

This was our last day at the factory, so we checked out of our hotel that morning.

This house was next to the hotel parking lot. I was surprised the roof was made of corrugated iron. Looked quite Icelandic!

On the other side of the road was a burnt out shell of a house. Not ominous at all!

About to depart in our non-air-conditioned Nissan Micra. Shudder!

We stayed at the factory until a little past noon, and then went to the regular shopping mall for lunch. That place is all about fabrics of one type or another.  Since things seemed to be going well at the factory, we called it a day, and drove to Dublin.

Last time we visited that factory, we flew in and out of Belfast, which meant stopping at London Heathrow on the way home. This time around, we decided to fly in and out of Dublin, which meant a slightly longer drive, but direct flights both ways.

For the last night, we stayed in a town called Malahide, which is a short hop and a skip away from Dublin airport. The Grand Hotel there was cheaper than worse hotels in downtown Dublin!

My room was really nice!

It even had a lounge!

And a fancy and huge bathroom.

The view was also gorgeous.

The view from a hallway window, looking towards Malahide itself.

I decided to embark on another Ingress “mission”, this time to Malahide Castle, which was a short walk away. This is the front view of the hotel.

Looking a little to the left of the hotel.

Very British Isles-styled houses.

Following fellow pedestrians.

A huge rugby field.

Cool ruins.

Malahide Castle. There were quite a few people frolicking there.

Selfie-proof I was there!

I kept hunting down Ingress locations in the surrounding park…

… even followed badly defined paths into the woods in a couple of places.

But, just like in Spain, it was all for naught (aside from the lovely walk), as the last two Ingress locations were unattainable behind closed gates, and I was there after closing time. Boohoo!

Walking back to the town proper.

Such a nice day!

On the way back I walked to the waterfront.

What is this, a modern building on the British Isles?!

Another selfie.

That evening we ate dinner at Gibney’s, at the recommendation of some old US friends, who lived in Malahide for a few years. It was good!

Back at the hotel, where the light had gone down enough that my phone camera could see both the room, and the view.

I woke up to a foggy view.

In the breakfast room.

The most expensive breakfast that whole trip.

The Grand Hotel foyer was very grand.

Looking at the Wow airplane that would take us home.

Rare to see a line quite this long of aircraft waiting to take off!

Goodbye Ireland!

Hello Iceland!

Life-as-usual booted right up as I went to buy a few necessities at the grocery store.

I then picked Emma up from daycare. She wanted to play in the yard for a bit.

At home, the fiber-optic-cable laying people had been busy!

The entire street was being hooked up!

Emma showing me her flowers.

Random machinery here and there.

Such determined moles!

A few Easter lilies made it all the way to the end of May!

The backyard was suddenly a lot greener than when I left…!

A late-evening soak after a badminton-practice for these lovely fellas.