Today was supposed to be a short day since we missed out on one of the stops (Clifden) because the town would be full of people and their ponies. Somehow, it didn’t become any shorter. I think our replacement tour guide for the day thought he’d better take us along some more scenic routes to make up for it, while everyone on the bus just wanted an early day to have more time to explore Galway. Ah well. He meant well, I’m sure.
Our first stop today was a guided tour of the town of Cong, which became famous through being the location for the filming of the 1952 film “The Quiet Man”, starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara.I don’t remember ever seeing it, but some of the people on the tour seemed to know it off by heart, and most others had at least seen it. Even without knowing the movie, our tour was great fun. The guide knew all about it and was a native of Cong himself. He had some of the people dress up in roles from the movie and re-enact some of the love scenes. Very amusing.
Then we drove past Lough Corrib in the Connemara area. Lough Corrib is a lake with lots of islands in it. There’s some pretty little houses on the hills all around too:
Next stop was on Killary Fjord, near Leenane, to do a cruise on the fjord for a couple of hours. It included lunch (that we had to pay for) which wasn’t too good. But the cruise was scenic, if freezing cold, enough. Luckily I had Paul, one of my fellow-travellers, outside being my windbreak while he was photographing! Some of the group thought we might as well have skipped it, but I thought cruising the fjord was interesting enough:
After relaxing on the cruise for a little while, it was off towards Kylemore Abbey, passing some beautiful, dramatic countryside along the way. As well as the odd sheep or three, of course:
Then we had a 45 minute stop at Kylemore Abbey. This is a beautiful castle that was initially built by a guy for his family. It changed hands many times and was eventually bought by nuns from Ypres, Flanders, who still live there. There’s only about 6 of them left, though so there’s concern as to its future. We didn’t have time to go in, unfortunately, so I wandered around a little and took some photos. I wanted a photo of me in front of it, so I asked Guy, from our tour group, to take a photo. He turned it into a photo-session so I started posing for the camera. He and Donna forced me to put up the resulting photo:
We then headed back in the direction of Galway and our hotel. There was some gorgeous scenery between the Abbey and Lough Inagh:
We arrived back in Galway around 5pm, and had just under two hours before dinner. Fortunately, the day was much better than the one before and there was no rain. I had a quick sight-see around the town. I most keen to get to the Cathedral and the University, and whatever else I can see on the way back to the hotel. I don’t know what the first picture below is of. It’s not mentioned on the map, but I liked the facade anyway:
Next was the gorgeous cathedral (though only from the latter half of last century) with its beautiful interior. Apparently the site used to be a goal and the doors you can see are actually from the old goal-house:
Then I rushed off to the University to give it the third degree, or at least look at it inside and out:
I then headed back into town, alongside the river this time, and then through the Latin Quarter back to the hotel:
After dinner I decided to make use of the hot spa facilities of the hotel, and Ellen and I went to use the outside spa. It was wonderful! But I couldn’t stay awake for long afterwards!
