A weekend in Limerick, Ireland

When we lived in Sweden 25 years ago, we made friends with an Irish family who had kids pretty much the same ages as ours. We've visited each other back and forth over the years, and last weekend we flew Ryan Air to Shannon, the airport close to Limerick, where they live. (Travelling on Ryan Air is story in itself. I have never experienced anything like that airline -- they hawk something about every five minutes of the trip, and make you stand outside in lines waiting to climb stairs onto the plane. Anything to save or make money.)

On Saturday morning Dave and Lindy went to the Limerick farmer's market in the rain.

Then in the afternoon we went into town to see an art museum. The Shannon River runs through the middle of Limerick, and the town has a castle and a cathedral, both of which you can see in the next photo, along with kayakers enjoying a place in the river that has a bit of turbulence.

On Sunday we went for a drive up the Shannon River. A few miles up the river from Limerick, the river widens into a big lake, which is a natural lake, made possible by the shallow slope of the river. The sun came out when we stopped at an overlook, so you can see the first photo with gray skies and no light, and then bright skies.

We drove on to a little village on the lake that I think is called Ballyvaughan. Kevin's last name is Ryan (no relation to Ryan Air, mercifully), and one of his Ryan cousins once owned a pub in the village, and it's still named after her. Kevin's father was born near the village. The village is complete with the ruin of a castle of some sort, so common all over Ireland. And lots of ducks and a few swans.

One of the pleasures of being at Lindy and Kevin's home was their back yard. A bit more than a year ago, they had a bunch of landscaping done. It was lovely, with a curving path going around the edges of the flower bed.