Ballinasloe, Athlone and Dublin

Today we have a simple plan, drive from Galway to our hotel near the Dublin Airport, return the car and have an early night as we have to be at the airport at 5am. It’s a two hour drive along the highway. We quickly find our way to the highway and put the foot down till we reach the 120km per hour speed limit. Along the way we decide it is coffee time and take the turnoff to a town called Ballinasloe. Off we go when all of a sudden we are brought to a stop by the traffic jam in front of us. What is happening in this town but then it crosses my mind there is possibly a local football game on or everyone is off to church. Then we overtake a horse and buggy. In Barellan, NSW, they have the Clydesdale Weekend where there are a few horses but here we are seeing hundreds and probably over a thousand gathered in the local show ground. This is part of their horse fair week. There was absolutely no parking available unless we paid €10 to park in someone’s driveway. We meandered through the town, passing many fabulously groomed horses. There were even donkeys in the street. No shops were to be found and access to the main street was blocked. Back on the highway we decided coffee at the next town.
Next town was Athlone, a town with medieval castle, churches and rivers. The only place we could find to get a coffee was a pub which we stumbled across and became the first customers of the day. Also toilets were available, coffee not too bad. We continued walking with MDW confident we would find our way back to the car. She was right as we walked down a road where people were taking photos of this road so I did too. Not sure the importance of it.
We got back on the highway and the Navman kept trying to divert us onto a side road. I checked the Navman settings and it had avoid tolls. This might be why we didn’t drive through the tollway out of Dublin, the one that you can’t avoid, yet we did. We checked into the Premier Inn, reliable hotel with a good bed. MDW did some hand washing whilst I returned the car and found my way back to the hotel on the shuttle bus. We finished off the evening with a nice meal at the hotel.
Ireland has been lovely, even with the cold weather at times, got to see lots of great scenery and towns.Read more