Met a couple from Copenhagen last evening who are on their fifth visit to Ireland. They were here two years ago holidaying on the river and this time they hired a canal narrow boat and travelled down the canal to Shannonharbour. They are permitted to travel on the Shannon between Athlone and Portumna but not onto the lakes. Today they plan to revisit Clonmacnois which they feel is a special place.
Last night the meeting for building Healthy Communities was held in Shannonbridge and a number of items were discussed including - Water supply unsafe, no resident Garda, Community Alert, Walkways, Hall, Field with Tennis court, Tidy Towns, Children, Library, Active Retirement Group, Public Transport, Village Population breakdown.
The people attending were all co-opted onto the Shannonbridge Healthy Community Group.
One of our Belgian pike anglers was saying that with reduced airfares they are able to fly to Dublin, hire a car, have Bed + Breakfast and main meal in evening, use of fishing boats for a week and all at a cost of about 550 Euros each. No wonder they are planning already to return for a week in April. Also the fishing is great with an average of eighteen pike being caught and released each day.
The weather has more or less settled with sunshine and temperatures in the mid fifties. Noticed that the water on Darcy;s field behind the Church has eased back but the Belgians say that the river is flowing fast. Tomorrow is Country Fair Day in Ballinasloe.
Heard that Ted Clifford in the Midland Camera Shop will process e-mailed photographs sent to him and that Spectra have a service in Athlone Shopping Center that allows digital camera users to feed in their chip and select and edit their photographs and print off copies in various sizes.