We went through lovely Heathrow, stayed for a few hours, then boarded a smaller place for Dublin. Right away, we struck up a conversation with our seat companion about great golf courses and weird rules. I said my favorite rule is that you can’t practice in your own bunker without a penalty, but most people don’t know that you can take practice swings in another bunker, no problem. Our new friend then wanted to learn a few rules by heart so i taught hin four rules which he remembered at the end of the flight. Good deed done.

We landed at 7:30 pm but Dublin is a small airport so it was easy to go through the exiting process and get our car, a big Peugeot that only spoke French! That was easy enough to fix and on the road we went. Turns out Irish roads are every bit as narrow as British and Scottish roads, and John is the same good driver. No problem to arrive at the lovely White Sands Hotel on the water with a  bit of moonlight reflecting on the water.

We got to know the neighborhood very well because it was already 9 pm and most restaurants were’ closed. Lali’s owner was a friend of the concierges so with one phone call,, he stayed open and we walked the 1/4 mile there. Already, we became familiar with hte streets and the charming eight or hood.