Thanks for the clever reminder that we need to "keep left" on the roads here.
Scott and David got up super early to go to the airport and get our rental car, then headed to Corkagh Park. Charlene and I got a slightly slower start and caught an Uber and met them there. Scott and Charlene continued the tradition of running a 5 mile race while on vacation. David and I continued the tradition of cheering them on (we're not crazy)
It was a beautiful morning. About 65 degrees and partly cloudy. I'm totally mesmerized by the clouds here. Always variable heights and lots of swirls and shades of grey. Very pretty. The park had several large looped trails for the run, wide fields with wildflowers, a heavily wooded area with some dirt paths, and some mowed grass fields. Great space!
Almost 2000 people participated.
Parts of the park were divided by hedgerows. I felt like I should expect to see the hounds and the hunt bounding through at any moment - ha.
While the runners were out on the track, I discovered that there was a geocache in the woods of the park, so I set out to explore. Here's one of the foot paths.
Here's the tree where it was hidden. There were a lot of 3 leafed plants out there, so I was glad I was in long sleeves and pants.
The flowers are beautiful
Success! The MC at the end of the race was naming people as they approached the finishing line and cheering them across the line. It was funny to listen to him.
After the race, we piled into the car and hit the highway west. I took my traditional role navigating, but I'm not on my A game. Rather than being all roundabouts, its a mix of traffic lights, roundabouts, and unmanaged intersections with 3, 4, or 5 roads coming in and out. Its hard to figure out how to give the driver directions when the intersections vary. The road/route names on google maps don't always match the signage, or the signs are posted only 100 feet before the necessary turn. We've taken a number of detours. Hopefully I'll get better as we go.
Old town in Athlone. We stopped at the midway point for lunch and a castle tour.
Picnic along the Shannon River before heading to the Castle.
There was a lock on river, but we didn't get to see it in operation.
One of the older city bridges. This was built after the older bridge came down in the 1840s. Just on this side of it was a river ford that was used historically until the channel was deepened enough for boat traffic. The castle was originally built to guard the river crossing. One of the few places to easily get across. The river runs north to south through the midlands and runs into the Atlantic at Limerick.
Outer wall of the castle. I liked the flowers growing out of it.
Church of Sts Peter and Paul, dating to the 1800s. Surprisingly we did not actually go in to take a look.
Castle courtyard and inner keep (on the right). Athlone was a key location for a battle in 1691 between the Jacobites and the Williamites (supporting William of Orange). The Jacobites on the western side were preventing the Williamites from gaining access to western Ireland by taking out the bridge and preventing a crossing. The Williamites lobbed over 12,000 canon balls of solid iron into the castle fortifications and the western part of the city, reducing it to rubble.
After the castle, we made our way up stream along the Shannon and came to the shore of Lough (Lake) Ree. There was a boat ramp and small marina as well as some long lanes laid out in the lake for sculling. Sadly no one was sculling that afternoon. The water was surprisingly not cold and a number of kids were swimming. There had been a regatta the day before and there was a good breeze blowing.
We met two ladies sitting on the shore (who happened to remark on Charlene's tatoos) and struck up a conversation. One had come from Poland 20 years ago and decided to stay. We learned in Dublin that Polish speaking population in Ireland is larger than the native Irish-speaking population (!)
Our AirBnb is a cute place with a lot of character (and a good bit of mildew). The walls in my bedroom are literally slick with moisture. Its in need of a strong de-humidifier to get things under control.
We had seafood for dinner at "Hooked" just up the street. The others tell me it was good. I tried to get something not seafood, but even the mac and cheese had shrimp. (sad face).
After dinner David and I decided to stroll through the center of the city and do some geocaching. We found three pretty easily. No where to leave my travel bug, but I figure there is still time to find a cache that has room for him.
This one was a small container on the end of a long stick that fit into a crevice in the mortar of a stone wall. Pretty cool.
There are a lot of canals/streams that feed into the harbor. Its quite pretty.
Sunset is after 10:00 pm. This was taken about 9:30.
One of the caches was by an archeological site that is open (during business hours), but is in a glass building that you can still see after hours. This is the Hall of Red Earl, the first municipal building in Galway dating back to about 1200. It fell into disrepair in the 1500s and was built over. It was rediscovered in 1997 and archeologists unearthed more than 11,000 artifacts from the site.
My favorite picture of the day :)
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