Day 10

Friday June 3

We had a late breakfast and watched the thanksgiving service in honor of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee at St. Paul's in London. We all enjoyed watching. The Archbishop of York gave an excellent sermon. We think that James' sister Jane met him when he was Bishop of Reading. 

When it was done we set out to do the Boyne Ramparts Heritage Walk. When the sun is out it is really lovely but every time there is no sun you have to put your jacket on again. It was a bit tricky to find it and the parking but Kate did great. First photo taken 13:19.

With the river Boyne on one side and the canal on the other it was really nice. The sign at the start said to watch out for Ollie the otter but we never saw him.

David did great to spy a bird's nest of a really big preditor bird obviously feeding young. He had brought his binoculars and pointed it out. How he had ever noticed it so far away is amazing. He passed the binoculars around and it was quite exciting.

The photos might not be that exciting but so much was blooming and just lovely. Yellow irisis in the muddy areas, queen anne lace, and buttercups all mixed with nettles and gigantic leaves which looked like rhubarb but of course wasn't.

It was a very peaceful walk except, ha-ha, the many different birds were very noisy. 

And yes, we spyed and 'stalked' a gray heron. 

We came to one of the old canal locks, now totally dilapidated.

We came from Navan and it's time to go back there. It's not a circled trail.

We enjoyed the place for just a little while though.

Back at the beginning there was another old lock. I had to remember that James' and Kate's dad love locks.

We decided to stop in the town Navan to find something to eat. By now it was 3:30 pm. We could park at the market place where the market was still going on but a sign said "no parking on Fridays". A young lady with children walked by and we asked her whether it would be ok. She said "oh yes" because she had also parked. Because she was driving off she gave Kate her parking ticket because there was time left. She wished us a good time in the town and told us to walk across the church yard and recommended Chekhov's for our coffee. She was so nice.

Well, as you can see we sat outside in the sun. And we had more than coffee.

 James had the "Super Food Bowl" with spicy chicken.

The rest of us had a loaded potato special of the day.

The meals were excellent. And the people at the next table were very nice too. We had a nice chat.

When we wanted to get back to the car Kate and David needed to go one way to buy something and we another. James was in need of socks. We had walked passed a shop on the way to the cafe where he thought he might get some. 

They lady in that shop told us where to go to find them ... across the street. And yes, James found wool socks. And so did I. Yes!

On the way back we went into the church instead of around. Of course.

Back at the car we made our way home. Since we had our lunch after 4 pm we called it dinner and had (as always) a nice relaxing evening. Of course first we had to play our game. Ha-ha, you can see that every day it is totally different. 

I wonder what we will be doing tomorrow?