After following and learning from your blog, I’ve taken up planespotting while traveling in Europe! Air New Zealand stood out to me for its rather unique design, especially the all-black/navy blue plane - I’d love if its liveries could be reviewed someday. Meanwhile, Aer Lingus has an entire plane livery dedicated to Ireland’s Rugby team!
Oh it makes me so happy whenever I learn I've planepilled someone. I'm glad to have given you something to do at airports! I hope you're enjoying your travels.
(I never noticed that the Aer Lingus logo on the rugby plane is inside a rugby ball. Neat!)
As for ANZ, it's on my requests list (and I'd planned to cover it since before I even started taking requests). I don't think anyone will be surprised to learn I really like their all-black plane, though.
1657 – Death of Franciscan friar and historian, Luke Wadding, in Rome. Born in Co Waterford, Wadding founded the Pontifical Irish College for Irish secular clergy in Rome. In 1900, Wadding’s portrait and part of his library were in the Franciscan friary on Merchant’s Quay, Dublin. Through Wadding’s efforts, St Patrick’s Day became a feast day.
1703 – The Commons hears a petition from Sir Kildare…
Lovely Jane pictured during an Aer Lingus advertisement. April 16th, 1953. 🤍✨
Jane recalls: “My first holiday: Every summer when I was a child was spent in Frinton-on-Sea in Essex. My earliest memory is of being smothered in calamine lotion in a hopeless attempt to stop the painful itching of urticaria that my skin always developed in the sun. The only suncreams back then were useless ointments that did nothing to prevent burning. I so much wanted to be like the other children, who turned a lovely shade of honey, when all I could achieve were rashes and freckles.
First school trip: I’ve never forgotten it as it was a childhood dream – we were taken to the Barratts sweet factory in Wood Green, North London. I still recall the sight and smell of the conveyor belts covered in Refreshers, Jelly Babies, Liquorice Allsorts, toffees – and the now-banned ‘sweet cigarettes’. We were given a bag of samples as we left – a Roald Dahl fantasy brought to life.
First time abroad: When I was seven I was picked to appear in a magazine ad for Aer Lingus, which involved being flown to Dublin. The flight is the part I will never forget: the excitement of take-off and looking down on clouds for the first time. The memory still gives me a thrill all these years later.”
please imagine how frightening it is to be 40,000 feet in the air without any help. I thought she was going to die because Aer Lingus was not willing to help.
At 38,000 feet, somewhere over the California/Nevada border....
My wife and I are back home now, having flown in from Dublin Ireland this past Friday. On one level it's good to be home, and on another it's somewhat disappointing to be home. I've really rather fallen in love with my wife's homeland, and she, naturally, begins to feel homesick every time we leave to come back to California.
I'll have lots (and lots) of images coming from the Emerald Isle soon, but I did manage to snag one or two decent shots from the air with my cell phone. I just loved the way the golden hour light was playing on those mountains down below.
Our path home from Dublin took us across Ireland and out over the Atlantic ocean, past the southern tip of Iceland and into Canadian airspace over Newfoundland and Quebec. We crossed over Hudson Bay and down thru Ontario and Manitoba (directly over Winnipeg). We then passed over North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming (I think we missed the lower corner of Idaho), Utah, Nevada and finally into California as we came in for a landing at LAX.
It's a long flight at almost 5,200 miles, however it's totally worth it to be able to go and explore such a gorgeous country.