Our time around Athlone

As I said earlier, we got a lift from Westport to Athlone. It was a dreary morning with lots of rain and wind, but the ride was fun with two Irish ladies just a bit younger than us. They dropped us in town and for the next couple of hours it rained a bit on and off. We popped into a couple of small cafes when the rain fell. We had a warm bowl of potato and leek soup in one and coffee in another as we walked around the town. We arrived at the large fortified castle on the River Shannon and had a look around and it also had a tourist office. We had a long chat with the lady there as no one else was around and it is always good to talk to "real Irish" folks. 

We located our accommodations which were nice. We washed our clothes and hung to dry and were out again to look more areound town. We had an early dinner in a cafe near the river. Ed had fish&chips and I had the Irish stew, both were very good. We walked around bait more then retired to see what we could do the next day. We had hoped for better weather to cycle to Clonmacnoise, a monastic settlement dating to around A.D. 600, but it wasn't looking like a good options. So we went to sleep until the drunks started coming in around 1:30am and woke us. There is a big pub culture here with much drinking, adding to that the recessed economy and it becomes a bad mix. It is sad to see and the tourist really add to it as well. 

We awoke to what looked to be a nice day, but they were calling for winds around 20mph so we needed an alternate plan. We decided to rent a car. This was an adventure we had wanted to avoid as driving on the opposite side of the road, on narrow roads, and with a manual transmission seemed like a recipe for disaster. We knew there was a reason we purchased trip insurance and we could rely on it if need be. 

One small car rental location in Athlone with 2 or 3 cars to rent. We got the black sporty Opel GT and away we went. Okay, it was a little jerky at first, but Ed caught on brilliantly. We made a loop around the midlands. Our first stop was Clonmacnoise and is well worth a visit and then onto Shannonbridge. There we saw a heavily fortified fort. The River Shannon was often attacked by Vikings and others so there were seceral of these forts along the river. We went into a bar/visitors center called Lukers and we were delighted to talk to two Irish that were well aquatinted with area and were a wealth on information. Lukers wasn't an open bar but being renovated and was quite old with two build in wood stoves, one though to be the only Queen Victoria fireplace left. 

Our next stop was Birr and we were able to get a little lunch. Yummy! Then it was onto the Slieve Bloom mountains, which were more like foothills. We saw a sign for the Giant's Grave and we followed them onto some very narrow road, know as tracks. Lucky we didn't meet any other cars. It came to a dead end, but no tomb so we started walking for a mile or so and finally found it. A heap of rocks with a sign telling us it is a megalithic tomb of the ancient warrior Bladhma. Then we were off again of to another trail for a short hike through a wooded area. 

It was now late in the afternoon and we needed to get the car back. Ed really wanted to get over 100kpm and get the car in sixth gear and finally had his chance on a larger open road. We were zooming now and had a great day in the midlands.