Given that we have traveled about as far from home as we possible can, today is the first step of our journey home. We packed our bags, said our farewells to Paul and Helen (who had to rush back earlier in the morning to Limerick for a meeting) and set off east.
Paul and Anita standing on the multi-lane highway that goes past his front door...
We decided not to visit Galway itself and headed out through Tuam and across to Roscommon. We stopped there briefly to buy some lunch and took it with us to Knockcroghery where we found a very nice little picnic spot. After what was a rather late lunch, we continued on to Athlone. Paul had suggested we have a look around the town but when we got there we found the centre all closed off for the "TriAthlone". Giving up the idea off looking around was one thing, finding our way out to our next destination with the crude map supplied by Budget was another matter entirely.
After driving a couple false starts we finally managed it and made our way to Clonmacnoise. This is the remains of a monastery that was first established in the 9th Century with the oldest relics there dating from the 12th Century. It was an interesting place to visit but without any real understanding of Irish history of that period, it was hard to appreciate its significance.
By now it was getting on into the afternoon and we still had about half of Ireland to cross. We set off to Shannonbridge and then continued east through Clara to Kilbeggan. Here we joined the M6 and headed off at 120 km/h towards Dublin. Compared with the 80km/h "R roads" and 100 km/h "N roads", the motorway is an easy road to drive but is rather boring as it lacks scenery.
We made it into Dublin easy enough and, with a little difficulty, found our way to our B&B (we are using the same one as when we arrived). After a bit of a rest, we walked down to Fagans for dinner.
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