On Wednesday, we got up, ate breakfast (breakfast is really good in
Ireland), packed up, and drove by the Ulster-American monuments. Then we drove to the Larne Market where we were to meet Nat and
Stella. The Larne Market is held every Wednesday morning. They have the usual
fresh produce, meat, fish, T-shirts and other items, and Orangeman booths. We met
some of Nat's friends and his sister Rea there and visited some. Here
are some pictures from the Market:
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Then, Nat showed us the way to the Larne Times office in order for us to meet with Dr. David
Hume, a local historian who does the history page for the Times each
week. He had asked to meet us before we left. Last year, Nat had asked him to put a notice in the
Larne Times saying I was looking for relatives, and he did. Nat had a few
people come up and talk to him about that when it was run, so we have even more leads
to follow than what we looked into this year. Dr. Hume interviewed us about our
search for my ancestral houses and mill, and about dulcimers. He then had the
photographer come in to take some pictures of us. Before we left, wanting to
learn more about Larne, we subscribed to the Times for 6 months. Our first
issue arrived a week after we returned home and had our article in
it! We're infamous! But, then, you already knew that.
After leaving the Larne Times office, we ate lunch, booked a room in a hostel in
Athlone, and set off for Athlone.
The drive was OK. We stopped in Dundalk, after crossing into the Republic, to
change our money into Euros. Not having any Euros readily available made parking
hard, so I drove around and around the block while Brandy went into a bank to change
Traveler's Cheques into cash. Then we got gas, some snack, and set off again toward Dublin.
The bridge over the famous River Boyne was impressive:
When we got to Dublin, it was 5:00PM. And it looked a lot like Greensboro, NC with
the construction barrels all in the road! One does not want to get to Dublin at
5:00PM. Rush hour was horrible - especially by the normal traffic we had seen so far! We finally
got around Dublin to the Motorway that would take us to Athlone, and were very
happy about that!
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