Sligo

Wed., July 20/16.

 It’s raining oh my. What shall we do? Sally say’s” I know” What about a free walking tour of the town? “Free sounds good” So up to the tourist Office we trudge. Why is everything uphill? Stopped at Lyon’s everything store for a full breakfast and then to the touristy place. Waited around outside in the drizzle because it was too warm inside. The Tour Guide Aurial arrived and off we went all around the circle Old Abbey, Famous and infamous buildings Cathedral Grave yard where Dracula’s mother is buried back to the tourist Office after two hours walking went for lunch to a café recommended by Aurial. We invited her to join us and after a bit of coaxing she did.we got to know her a lot better and found out she is a qualified marine Archeologist and runs her own tour guiding business to keep food on the table. Not much money in digging up old stuff that you can’t keep or sell. On her recommendation we hired a cab to take us to Carrowkeel Neolithic Cemetery. A really interesting place with about 15 visible tombs with one big central passage tomb. We spent about 3 hours wandering around and then got a cab back to the city. Sally wasn’t feeling well at all so went to a druggist who got her an appointment with a doctor so she could renew her prescription for antibiotics. Went back to the boat for drugs then up to the Tesco for shopping and return to boat for a pasta dinner. Aurial joined us for a drink and she brought her doggy Zara for a visit. What a suck!!

Thursday July 21/16.  A lazy start to the day. Sally on drugs! Had breakfast and then we all went up to the Abbey did the self guided tour and Aurial phoned and offered to take us out to Strandhill to show us some Midens. Midens are really really old garbage dumps if you didn’t know that. Sally begged off. Mark and I went. She picked us up at the boat and off we went with Mark cuddled up in the back with Zara and me in the front seat not cuddled up with Aurial. She was driving. Had a very nic. Everyone tie walk on the strand looking at all the fossils in the rocks and the miden was a huge pile of oyster,clam and winkle shells. A Swedish archaeologist had been there some time ago and excavated it and at the bottom of the trench found the skeleton of a girl. It’s the only site found so far with a burial at the bottom of it. Then we drove out to the Strand and had a coffee and a sticky bun then returned to the boat. Being nice I rode in the back with Zara. She lay with her head tucked in under my arm looking up at me with big brown eyes wanting to be petted. Did I mention BIG Suck? Aurial decided against coming on board for a drink and went off home. We had a drink and went to bed.

Friday July 22/16 Up early breakfast and decided we would all take the bus to Eniskillan as it would be Marks last day with us. So we did. A nice ride and we had a nice time wandering around the castle and town and even managed a Geo Cache. Had a Pint and meal at” Spoons” the caught the last bus to Sligo.

Sat. July 23/16 0530 Mark up and away for Dublin and home. We got underway for Killybegs at 0815 with the falling tide to carry us out.