Sligo

No, we hadn't heard of Sligo either.  Apparently Yeats spent his childhood summers here, so the town lays claim to him as so many other Irish towns do.  (Don't underestimate the important of Yeats to the Irish psyche; he's huge.)  The town was on the decline, then they did some revitalization a few years ago, touristed it up, and it's a nice little town now.  Though much shop space is still empty.

We were a bit tired from our Aran Islands bike odyssey, so admittedly we didn't do much in Sligo.  We could have bussed about & done a little hiking, though this is really inconvenient - in the North of Ireland, you really need a car to get around efficiently & to see the natural sights.

Sarah soaks up downtown Sligo

Our Sligo home

We actually got an inexpensive room in a huge old hotel that is being remodeled after after being turned into a Best Western.  This brings me to an interesting tidbit: external plumbing in Ireland.  Apparently, indoor plumbing is such a new invention that many homes in Ireland do not feature it.  That and (I suppose) mild winters means that many homes' drains are routed on the outside, and feed directly into a sewer grate.  Like our Galway B&B.  And even this enormous Sligo hotel.

I'm note sure how they install electrical wiring and hot and cold taps within walls, yet are forced to put the drain pipes on the outside...

The latest in Irish drain technology

Yeats certainly is a funny-looking fellow.  Here he is wearing a shirt with some of his writing on it.

Nice little river runs through town.  A bunch of whitewater kayakers were out on it (several of them quite pro), though I'm not sure what they were doing as there didn't appear to be any rapids nearby.

We had a very tasty, inexpensive, and all homemade & locally-sourced meal at Hargadon's - a pub restaurant with a surprisingly cozy interior.  Highly recommended by us.  Here Sarah waits patiently for her food at the wood-slab table (while I have flashbacks of early 1980s Mr. Mike's tables).

Sligo - nothing wrong with it, but all nearby activities seem to be, well, somewhere else.  At least we got a good sleep!