Day 4 : Liquid Archeology (by Mary)

[Written by mary, edited and published by brian]

Our usual  philosophy on traveling is to just let the wind take us wherever, this trip, we have decided to stay in Athlone for a week as a base. Athlone is smack dab in the middle of Ireland, and from there we can do day trips.

Brian here – For example, here’s a screen shot of Athlone to Dublin from Google Maps…Less than Glendora to San Diego, about 1 hour 20 minutes.

The hotel is warm, lovely room, pub food excellent, and as this is our third stay here, some of employees remember us! (Brian here again – she ain’t making this up – the boss bartender remembered us by the root and region of our last name).

So, today we decided, as it was projected to be a wet, rainy day,  to head into Dublin and taste some whiskey. We also decided to park outside of the city, and as we entered the car park, we drove around for several minutes,  until Brian’s charmed life took over, and we found a parking space in (literally) the front row.

This was no mini-mall parking lot (car-park in local vernacular). Here’s a shot from Google

The train ride into town showed us a side of Dublin we hadn’t seen, the Irish version of the projects, and boy, graffiti, homeless sleeping by the side of the River Liffey, very sad and depressing.  (the worlds problems exist everywhere…and our ‘elected’ leaders focus on re-election)

Our first stop was a distillery we’d never heard of Teeling.  Took the tour, and I must say, one of the most informative tours, paced well, and of course at the end, WHISKEY TO DRINK, so what’s not to like.

(Ask us what purpose the glass box serves…)

The Guinness Storehouse was very close, and we thought we’d pop into the shop to buy some items, but alas, one had to pay 22 euros just to go into the store to shop, so no thank you Guinness. (I had slightly different words for the brand) 

Our feet and legs at that point had started to give out, so we took a taxi to Jameson, decided not to do the tour, as it was getting late. 

Typical Irish weather, the day started with lots of rain, and by the drive back to the Hotel, the sun was out and blue skies all around. 

Irish rush hour was laughable 

Just a couple to thoughts on Athlone. We stay on the west side of the River Shannon, which is so dark and cold, it’s black (the river that is), anyway, we stay in the part of town that is the oldest, less commercial, more quaint, and the lovely doors to houses that are about 4 feet high. So last visit, this part of town was under construction, and as a result not many restaurants, this trip, the other side of the Shannon is completely torn up and our side is full of restaurants and new shops.