Ireland day 0535. Friday 17 March 2023- Patrick2*

Ireland day 0535. Friday 17 March 2023- Patrick2

Today’s summary	St Patrick’s Day. Spent the morning doing Spanish homework and then went to the Malahide Yacht Club for lunchtime party. Watched the parade in the Green after lunch and had a takeaway for dinner
Today’s weather	Showery with glimpses of sun. The rain mostly held off for the duration of the parade but it rained while we were in the demesne. Light southerly wind. Appx 9C.

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): St Patricks Day and Yacht Club

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

Today we did manage to have the lie-in that we had been denied by yesterday’s gas boiler man visit. So we treated ourselves to breakfast in bed (and I managed to make it and serve it – which was a major step to independence) and then I spent the rest of the morning doing some extremely complicated Spanish homework that I have been sent. It’s about the past participle and without having been to the classes for the last three weeks, I really have no idea what is going on. Thank goodness for Google Translate.

Anyway more importantly today it’s St Patrick’s Day, one of the biggest days in the Irish calendar. We celebrated by walking down to the Malahide Yacht Club to join their Irish-coffee-and smoked-salmon-(and-cupcakes) party over lunchtime. Hilarious, as these events always are, though we were a bit disappointed not to win the top prize (or indeed any prize) in the raffle. Still, there’s always next year.

After that we headed down to the Green to watch the end of the St Patrick’s Day Parade, then over the road to the demesne and a short walk up to the castle and back. But actually at over 4km it was another post-op record for me. By the time we got back I felt a bit tired (nothing to do with the alcoholic lunchtime) so went to sleep for an hour. Most unusual but actually quite nice. Now I’m slowly coming around again and we are contemplating finishing off a perfect St Patrick’s Day with a takeaway from the glorious Kathmandu Kitchen. Fabulous.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


I always knew that Val had nautical genes. Well – her dad was in the navy	Salmon and hot whiskey. A peculiarly Irish combination but delicious

Getting into the swing of things in the yacht Club	The first magnolias were just coming into flower in the Malahide Castle demesne. This one had a light scent, a bit like roses

Looking out from the Avoca courtyard	Looking into the main park from the castle. I’m always grateful every time I come here, that all this space is right on our doorsteps

At the bottom of New Street, with the crowds eagerly anticipating the arrival of the parade