Ireland day 1141. Tuesday 12 November 2024- UK Guests Day 3

Today’s summary	A bit of a repeat of yesterday. Our guests left early to continue their ancestry researches in Dublin. We, meanwhile, had a fairly quiet day, catching up on jobs and relaxing. Managed to fit in a short walk in the afternoon. Out to Portmarnock in the evening for Spanish and for Pilates then reconnected with our friends back in the flat later on
Today’s weather	Clear sunny and cool. Hardly any wind. Appx 9c

Today’s overview location (The grey mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The orange 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): Tea walk to Centra with Val

Commentary

It’s quite nice every now and then to slow things down a bit. So after the busy the busy programme of the last few days (well weeks actually), it actually came as a bit of a relief to have a rather quieter day today.

Having said that, the start of our day was a bit of a re-run of yesterday, with an early start. Our guests were continuing their ancestry researches at the National Gallery in Dublin today, and wanted to make the most of their time there. So breakfast was prepared for 7am and they were away and down to the station in time to catch a DART at around 8.

That left Val and I to our own devices for much of the rest of the day, so we took full advantage of the situation and immediately retired back to bed with a couple of cups of revitalising tea.

But we only lingered for a few moments as Val wanted to get down to the library to order a couple of history books she’d had her eye on, and I wanted to catch up on some admin. So we were soon up and about again, and busying ourselves with the day.

Once we had come back to earth, we had a quick lunch and, as the weather was nice, Val and I headed off through the demesne and out the Centra store at the end of the Yellow Walls Road, via Killeen Park. We treated ourselves to teas and coffees from the machine and sat in the sunshine on a bench while we watched the avian comings and goings on the lagoon. Exactly as “retired” people are supposed to do.

As soon as we got back to the flat, we pulled together a quick lunch (more chicken casserole!) and started thinking about the next stage of the day. For me that meant Spanish classes – so I located and checked through my homework – and for Val, that was Pilates, so mats and attire had to be sorted out.

We set off for Portmarnock at about 6:30 pm and eventually sat down finally to catch up with our guests, who had meanwhile returned to the flat, at about 9:30pm.

So a pretty full day, even though we were supposed to be relaxing!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


We could be in Canada! Maple leaf shadow temporarily etched into the pavement alongside the Swords road	Colourful display, as always, on the way in to Killeen Park

Centra!	A seat for tea and a shadow to sit in it



The bullrushes in the marsh between Milford to Caves Strand are now in full moult and are shedding their down seeds all along the path