Ireland day 0542. Friday 24 March 2023- Eir and Guinness *

Ireland day 0542. Friday 24 March 2023- Eir and Guinness

Today’s summary	Drove up to Drogheda to renew mobile phone contracts and got soaked with icy rain on the way back to the car. Went to Ardcath for a pint at Bennett’s in the evening
Today’s weather	Bright and blustery with plenty of sun in the morning. Clouded over at lunchtime then heavy rain on and off all afternoon. Gale force south westerly 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): Drogheda Eir shop from Tesco and back

Commentary

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

A busy day today. Once we had girded our loins and got up, first of all we headed up to the castle where Val had to pick up a new uniform for work (she’s back at the museum again tomorrow). Once that was done, we jumped into the trusty Yaris and drove up to Drogheda.

The main purpose of the visit was to renew our phone contracts at the Eir shop, but we also took the opportunity to do some shopping at Tesco first. Shopping complete we enjoyed some tesco salads for lunch, whilst sitting in the car being rocked about by the blustery gale outside. After lunch, the walk down into Drogheda to the Eir shop from the Tesco car park was enjoyable, but the slog back up the hill afterwards was a bit grim – it decided to rain (hard) and we were walking into the teeth of a gale. So we arrived back at the car soaking wet – and me feeling grateful I’d had my crutches to keep me upright as we slogged up the windy hill.

Anyway we had achieved our aim of getting a reduced price contract for a further six months and then, undeterred by our epic walk and attendant soaking, we decided to go over to Ardcath for a quick drink art Bennett’s bar, where we also met up with a friend for a chat. It’s a lovely pub and right across the road from the Crow’s Hermitage, where we lived for our first month in Ireland.

Eventually, having put the world to rights, we headed back down the M1 and got back to the flat at about 9:30. So now it’s time to think about making a bit of late supper then probably hot showers all round to dispel the final memories of the icy soaking we received earlier in the day.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Heading up to the castle this morning – with my favourite sequoia in the background	Tesco Drogheda. probably the best (in terms of the range of things stocked) supermarket we have found so far in Ireland. But all the Tesco stores seem to be going through a refurbishment at the moment – the main consequence of which being they sell less stuff. Sadly Drogheda hasn’t escaped this regressive “modernisation” drive

A new block of flats on the way down into town. We have watched it being built ever since we arrived – back in 2021 it was just a hole in the ground. I have to say from the way it’s carved into an unstable looking hillside, I think I’d be a bit worried about subsidence if I lived there.	Scotch Hall – Drogheda’s main shopping mall. It’s quite nice but almost impossible to access on foot if you happen to be (as we were) on the wrong side of the road

The object of our travels – to renew our phone contracts at the Eir shop	Our favourite pub in Ireland! Bennett’s in Ardcath – just time to drop in for a drink on the way home and catch up with one of our friends

Two of the more iconic bridges over the Boyne, in central Drogheda