I had lovely day yesterday! I decided to go back to Athlone. It’s so delightful. This time I decided to take a river cruise. (You might as well know, I have a “thing” for rivers.) My first stop was at a museum right on the river to see if the people at the desk knew where I might catch the boat. They did indeed! Right behind the Athlone Castle near Sean’s Bar, (which just happens to be the oldest bar in Ireland), would be the place to catch it.
Readers, these are the things I am learning about blogging…next time I’d get you a picture of at least the entrance to Sean’s Bar. It’s easy to look up on the internet though. The official website for the bar says: “Sean’s Bar has a detailed and documented history right back to 900 AD. During renovations in 1970, the walls of the bar were found to be made of ‘wattle and wicker’ dating back to the ninth century. Old coins which were minted by various landlords for barter with their customers were also found and dated to this period. The walls and the coins are on display in the National Museum. One section remains on display in the pub.”
Who knows, I may be back to Athlone once more before I’m off to spend some time in the area of Galway. I’d like to have a pint at Sean’s Bar…and maybe tour the castle, too…and I could visit that museum.
I have pictures from the river tour. We sailed north to Lough Ree (the Lake of Kings).
This is me…enjoying the day.
And a few pictures around town:
Here is Murphy’s Law, Gastro Pub and Restaurant. Of course a letter has fallen from the sign. What did you expect?
Even the water main covers are beautiful!
That last photo is The Bastion Gallery. Again, I’m learning. I didn’t see I’d missed having the whole sign until I got home…but I loved the quirky feel of the place.
Today I have been practicing with resizing these photos so they’re not such big files…and reading about technical ins and outs. So I’ve been playing indoors.