Ireland Day 8 – Galway and Connemara District

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!

Ireland Day 7 Ennis to Galway

We left Ennis around 9am and headed in the direction of The Burren by way of Corofin and Kilnaboy before stopping in Kilfinora, to see a documentary about The Burren, and have a little look around the town. Kilfinora has the smallest Cathedral in Ireland and is well-known for its celtic crosses:
  
After this, it was off past Lemaneagh Castle:
Next stop was the Poulnabrone Portal tomb. There were similar ones along the side of the road, but not in as good repair as this one. It’s in the middle of The Burren, which is basically a lot of limestone on top of which little soil is left:
 
The road between the tomb and Ballyvaughan:

Next stop was for lunch, in Ballyvaughan. It was a nice lunch with a sea view again:

Then it was onwards in the direction of Bellharbour with its Martello Tower, and past the Cistercian Monastery by Galway Bay on the road to Kinvarra:

Kinvarra was a pretty fishing village, close by Dungaire Castle:
 
Next was a whirlwind tour of Galway on the way to the Celtic Crystal showroom.
 
That was a bit of a weird one. The owner of the factory/shop, an elderly lady, who apparently won the business-woman of the year award at some stage, expounded the virtues of the crystal being cut in her factory quite vehemently. It was like listening to a very strict english teacher rattling off the rules and regs before going out to play. She had a young man show us how the glass is cut etc, which was quite interesting.
After this we went back to the hotel and had some free time. A few of the others went into town for some sight-seeing but I thought I better get back to the room and work on my blog and photos since it was raining, and we were supposed to have several hours spare time the next day.
Dinner was quite good, and at 8.15pm we met the bus with a wild pensioner who turned out to be our driver. We were taken to another hotel for a performance of Trad on the Prom (link because we were not allowed to take photos). This was a show of “Irish Music, Song & Dance at its Best”. It really was very good, with the performers each being award winning and some having performed with Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, The Chieftains etc. It wasn’t as much ‘fun’ as the show at the Merry Ploughboy, but probably technically better. It was most enjoyable in any case.
Our mad skinny-dip raving driver picked us up and took us back to the hotel by about 11:30pm, ready for me to do some more work til 1am before falling into bed.

Ireland Day 6 – Killarney to Ennis

Today was my last day with my first tour and my 42 travelling companions. Fortunately not in the way of my first photo of the day – the graveyard in Tralee with its celtic crosses:

We continued on in the direction of Listowel, coming across this beautiful scenic river:

  Listowel was a pretty town that we just drove through:

Then we drove along the Shannon for a little while to the ferry crossing at which we crossed over. I didn’t take any photos because there was no way I was getting up on the top deck into that wind!:

Once we were on the other side of the Shannon, we took off for Kilrush and from there to Lahinch. Those crazy golfers will play anywhere:

We stopped for lunch at Liscanner, at Joseph McHugh, for fish and chips. They weren’t the cheapest, but they were very fantastic, in all their greasy goodness. Yumm. Especially with a half a pint of Guiness to wash it all down. After this we drove through some more beautiful scenery to our next (illegal for buses but did it anyhow) stop at St Brigids Well just outside Liscanner in County Clare. This is a healing well and people tend to leave things behind. It’s only a small area and it’s quite a tight fit! The walls are covered in things people have left behind for about 4 meters. The well can only just be made out in the black area down the bottom of the second picture.

 

After St Brigids Well it was on towards the Cliffs of Moher:

The Cliffs of Moher themselves were spectacular. I only walked a little way along the right path. I had intended to go a little way up the left path afterwards, but the rainclouds and the rain over the ocean not too far away made me think I probably wouldn’t get back to the bus dry, and it was too cold to be wandering around with wet clothes! We were very fortunate in that it started to rain only at the end of our visit, allowing me to get some good shots in first:

 

Then it was off to the final destination for the tour. On the way to Bunratty, we passed the Clare Abbey:

 

I wasn’t joining the rest of the tour for the farewell banquet dinner at Bunratty Castle, but was being picked up for my next tour at about the time they were leaving for it. In the meantime, I had time to photograph the castle they would be banqueting at:

I had one last drink with Cathy at the Creamery Bar, and then it was time to say goodbye to my first tour.

My new tour started with William, my tour director (guide and driver) picking me up at the hotel and bringing me to my hotel in Ennis. The Temple Gate Hotel is a converted monastery. It’s interesting. The lift smelled of vomit, so I avoided it, and my triple room(!) was tired looking, but after the Malton, it’s to be expected that I would be somewhat disappointed by the accommodation I suppose! It was only one night, so I wasn’t too bothered.

I had a little while until dinner, so I went exploring. First stop was St Mary’s Franciscan Church. They were having some sort of performance practice session inside, so I didn’t go in very far, nor take photos. After that, I just wandered around the town for a little while, until it was time to get back to the hotel for dinner:

Then it was time for dinner and to meet my new tour companions. I found out that there’s only 17 of us. A change from the 43 in the first tour. And there’s another non-American: an older gentleman who is actually a retired priest. He lives in Ireland after being born here and working in Manchester in the UK for 47 years. He wants to see how the country has changed in that time. After dinner, we got together for drinks and to go through some information with William. Most of the others had only just arrived in Ireland, so were dead tired and went to bed. I was intending to go to my room, and did in fact do so, but remembered I’d left my jacket at the bar. I went back down to collect it and ended up staying a while to talke to some of my co-travellers. It was good fun, but wasn’t getting any of the blog or photos done, so I didn’t tarry too long. I had a look out the window of my hotel room since I could hear lots of partying going on. The view was very good: