Road trip to Athlone!

 My younger sister works for a large telecommunications company that is based in Athlone which is about an hour and half away from Dublin.  She has lived there for awhile but I have never visited her there.  However, she moved to a new house recently so I decided it was time to go see where she lives!

The drive down was fine - it is all motorway.  The road was good but the weather was bad with it raining heavily a lot of the way.  By the time I got to Athlone it was turning in to a nice pleasant day which was great as I hoped Katie would take me out walking and show me the sights.

We had a great day.  We hung out for a bit - I brought my ukulele and so my sister tutored my for a bit.  She is a really talented musician and plays the piano really well along with the oboe, guitar and the ukulele.  She can pretty much play any instrument she throws her hand to!  By the end of my lesson she had me strumming way better than I have ever done.  

After a lovely lunch of rashers and eggs, we went walking up through the town.  Athlone is built on the Shannon River and is really picturesque.   Looking at the Shannon, brought back memories of the time I swam in it as part of a Triatholon team along with my husband and our friend Frank.  Ciaran was the runner while Frank did the cycle.

We took a wander around the Shopping Centre in Athlone where we went to a 9D movie which was like going on a Rollercoaster! Katie also pointed out the birthplace of John McCormick to me too. What a fun day!

After walking back to Katie's house (and passing the pitch where she plays tag rugby) we had another ukulele practice and then I set off back to Dublin about 5.30pm and got home at 7ish.  I hope to visit her again soon!