Rosslyn Chapel

We had said good-bye to Alex the night before so he didn't have to be up early to see us off. After breakfast, we checked out and drove to Rosslyn Chapel, south of Edinburgh, made famous by "The Da Vinci Code". Rosslyn Chapel was built in 1456 under the direction of William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness. The chapel was designed to be shaped like a crucifix but was never finished as only the choir was fully constructed. The foundations of the unbuilt nave and transepts stretching to a distance of 90 feet were found in the 19th century. The chapel features intricate decorative carvings including one that many believe to be of North American corn, which would pre-date Columbus' visit to the Americas. The crypt under the chapel has been sealed off for many years and recurring legends suggest various religious artifacts, including the Holy Grail or the head of Jesus Christ may be buried there. in 1837, the 2nd Earl of Rosslyn was to be buried in the crypt but the original entrance could not be found. The chapel was looted by Cromwell's forces and used as a stable and fell into disrepair until Queen Victoria visited in 1842 and expressed desire that the chapel be restored.

Edinburgh Royal Mile

After Rosslyn Chapel, we decided to spend some time in downtown Edinburgh. We drove back into town and due to construction, had a hard time making our way towards Princes Street. We finally found a car park near the Omni Mall and decided to walk to the Royal Mile for lunch. We settled on the first pub we found, the Albanach. The fish and chips looked good, so that's what we ordered, along with two Diet Cokes and a local beer for J. R. and we watched some rugby on the TVs. Afterwards, we strolled the Royal Mile, walking up towards Edinburgh Castle and doing some shopping. Then Janie wanted to go to her favorite shop, Canongate Jerseys and Crafts which is on the Holyrood side of the Royal Mile. She found a scarf she liked and then we walked back towards our car. We still had some time to kill, so we stopped at The Filling Station for a drink and a light snack.

Back to Dublin

We drove to Edinburgh airport and returned the rental car to Hertz, which had even worse customer service dropping off than picking up. It was raining, so we thought we could go inside the small office to return our car but were told we had to wait by the car in the rain for the only employee they had working. J. R. sent Janie and Rebecca onto the airport with the luggage since he was wearing a rain jacket. The employee was incredibly slow and then his computer wouldn't communicate and then he stopped to help another customer, delaying further.

Once at the airport, the kiosks for Ryan Air were shared with other airlines. We walked up to use the kiosk and then an employee of the airport tried to "help" us with the machine (despite us needing no help) and it ended up we didn't get a receipt for our luggage because of her "help". Thankfully the luggage was not lost by the airline. She also did not do the visa check she was supposed to do, and Ryan Air complained about that when we got on the plane, telling Rebecca (but not J. R. or Janie) that she could "not let her board if she wanted to". That would have been a fun conversation given we had checked bags, proving we had indeed checked in and it was the airport who screwed up. But we boarded the flight for the short hop back to Dublin. Passport control lines were extremely long and that meant we missed the next-to-last shuttle to the Holiday Inn. We managed to catch the last one, though and were at the hotel shortly after midnight.

The Flight Home

After hotel breakfast in the morning, we caught the shuttle to Dublin airport. Aer Lingus couldn't check us in for our flight from Toronto to Chicago and the American Airlines service desk was completely worthless as well (even arguing with J. R. that we must be flying Air Canada and not Aer Lingus if we were flying to Toronto). Security was fine except for the moron in front of J. R. who repeatedly forgot about things in his pockets, or his belt, or his laptop and slowed down what should have been a quick line.

We had some dinner in the airport and the flight to Toronto was uneventful. Arrival in Toronto, however, was anything but. The Aer Lingus employee in Dublin told us our bags were checked all the way through to Chicago, which was a lie. Onboard the plane, the announcement said "if you are connecting to another Canadian city, you must claim your bags and re-check". We were not sure if we also had to claim our bags, since we were not connecting to another Canadian city, but the signs in the airport said all passengers had to claim their bags. So we waited and waited for almost 45 minutes. We were glad we did because our bags eventually came down the carousel. This meant, however, we now had less than a half-hour before our flight was to board.

So we hustled through the airport, which had very poor signage. There were no signs for connecting flights in the customs area and no signs for American check-in in the direction we headed (the area was behind us as we came upstairs so we would have had to turn around to see the signs). We went to a kiosk to get our boarding passes and found American had given our seats away. The kiosk also did not let us check our bags so we were directed to the counter. The agent there was able to check the bags but could not provide seat assignment even though the online app showed our seats were assigned.

U.S. Customs lines were thankfully short and we were 'saved' by the typical American Airlines flight delays (flight was delayed an hour). The gate agent for American was downright hostile to Janie when she asked for a seat assignment, saying "you are not my priority". We decided this was American's new motto. Eventually we boarded for a short flight to Chicago and a limo ride home.