Lots of names of places in Australia! We nearly got caught, as Heidi indicated there were tolls on the road, now we did know of the ones in Dublin, but not out here, and we had used up all our euro, except for 2 euros, which I luckily found to pay the toll.
Miles and miles of great roads, and not a lot of traffic. The Irish could never complain about their road system, which certainly highlights the inefficiency of our national road. The idea that roads are a national responsibility obviously has great merit.
The towns that we passed all had some interesting information about them particularly
A bridge was built across the river in the 12th century, approximately 100 metres south of the current bridge. To protect this a fort was constructed on the west bank in the town by Turloch Mór Ó Conor. On a number of occasions both the fort and bridge were subject to attacks, and towards the end of the 12th century the Anglo-Normans constructed a motte-and-bailey fortification here. This was superseded by a stone structure built in 1210 by Justiciar John de Gray. The 12-sided donjon dates from this time. The rest of the castle was largely destroyed during the Siege of Athlone and subsequently rebuilt and enlarged.
During the wars that racked Ireland in the seventeenth century, Athlone held a vital position, holding the main bridge over the River Shannon into Connacht. In the Irish Confederate Wars (1641–1653), the town was held by Irish Confederate troops until it was taken late in 1650 by Charles Coote, who attacked the town from the west, having crossed into Connacht at Sligo.
Like so many small towns they are difficult to drive through, we saw the castle ruins at Roscommon but couldn't find the exit to take us there.
With space a premium, expansion with large supermarkets is around the perimeter of the towns, and usually there are 3 or 4 large supermarket chains giving shoppers lots of choice.
We had our coffee in the coffee shop attached to the Spar supermarket, something that most small places at home would never have, and then for comfort stops the supermarkets are about the only places with restrooms.
I bought us sandwiches and thought we could go to a park, wrong, there are beautiful areas, besides rivers or lovely views, and you cannot get anywhere near them. No where at all to appreciate the different locations and what they offer.
As we got further north, we often crossed the border, into UK then back to Ireland for quite a bit. Then finally sign announced where we were.
We arrived in Armagh a little early, but our hostess had our room ready. We are on a golf course, next to the golf driving range with fantastic 240 degree views over the country.
The view over the countryside gives an indication of what it would have been like when our ancestors lived and worked on the farms, only in those days they would have had very small allotments.
No comments:
Post a Comment