Ireland day 1037. Wednesday 31 July 2024- Newbridge and New Bridge

Today’s summary	Val was at work today so I spent the morning doing some paperwork and then went out on a sunny walk round the Broadmeadow lagoon to Newbridge. Caught the train back (and had a good look at the new Greenway bridge from the train) then spent the evening after dinner watching the Olympics again.
Today’s weather	Dry, sunny and warm all day. Light easterly wind. Appx 21c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The orange line shows where I walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Newbridge in the Sun

Commentary

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

I was left to my own devices today, as Val had been called in to do a shift at the Museum. So once she was safely on her way, equipped with packed lunch and trusty thermos, I settled down to tackle some paperwork (I also started some Spanish revision, as it’s only a few weeks until classes start again).

I applied the time-boxing approach to the admin jobs, so called it off after an hour and a half and decided to do something more enjoyable instead. I hadn’t walked over to Newbridge for a while, and as it was a nice day, I thought I’d give it a go. Plus, I also wanted to check on progress with the construction of the new Broadmeadow cycle bridge, which you can only really do from the train, which runs alongside.

I’m still trying to improve my walking pace, post my hip operation, so walked as briskly as I could today. The water level in the lagoon was low (must be a first or third quarter moon at the moment) so I got round with just-about-dry feet. I made it to my Newbridge “checkpoint” (the seat on the right as you go into the demesne) in 1h 50m – a full 20 minutes faster than a year ago – which I was pretty pleased about. Especially as the almost-flooded section around the north shore of the lagoon was very slippery and I had to take it slowly.

I really enjoyed the walk, though I thought the north shore of the lagoon, which has never really been one of my favourite places, was looking particularly tatty today.

After pausing for tea and crisps (and an almond croissant, if you must know) at the Newbridge café, I wandered over to the station to get the train back. I had quite a long wait but I didn’t mind as it was warm and sunny and I’m still quite enjoying the novelty of it all.

Anyway, once the train came and I managed to secure a window seat, I got a good view of the new cycle bridge construction works as we sped along. I could see that the engineers are actually making quite good progress. About half the viaduct spans between the piers are in place now, so perhaps it won’t be too long before we will be able to make our first journeys across it. Definitely something to look forward to.

I was back in the flat by about 4:30pm, in plenty of time to get the kettle on and have a cup of tea ready for when Val got back. The rest of the evening was spent much as it has been the last few nights – a good dose of the Olympics, followed by an episode of the rather more dystopian “The Wire”.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Even a motorway viaduct can look attractive when the sun shines	Just about managing to keep dry feet on the north shore of the lagoon

Anti-EU sentiment: you don’t see much of it in Ireland, but it seems to be growing a bit on the back of the usual factors like immigration	Newbridge House looking good in the sunshine and after the renovations have finally finished

Lunch and breakfast all in one. If you look hard enough I am sure you can convince yourself that there are some vegetables in there	Field of bullrushes behind Malahide Yacht Club

New link-bridge (which I didn’t even know was under construction) at the left hand side of the picture. It links the new Greenway viaduct to the shore on Bissets Strand