On the Streets of Galway

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

We enjoyed a non-travel day, which amounted to strolling the neighborhoods near our hotel. Galway is a charming town for shopping, with a medieval “Latin Quarter” with many of the buildings dating to the 1500s. Chrissi found a Royal Tara cup and saucer at a second-hand store, but mostly we just people watched and soaked in the ambiance. We stopped at The Quays pub for fresh oysters and a pint, browsed the little stores along the narrow streets and visited a couple tea shops during the afternoon. It was off to the King’s Head Pub tonight to watch Irish dancers.

At the Quays Pub

Fresh Oysters!

Glass floor in one of the pubs

Irish art

Flags on Kennedy Square

Kirwens Lane -- part of the Medieval shopping district in Galway

Swans on the Quay, Galway

Who is that sitting next to Oscar?

Bodhrains and Bogs

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Yesterday we traveled east from Galway; today we went west. Our goal was to explore the Connemara region on the back roads. The roads were very narrow, and the scenery so awe-inspiring that the small “loops” we planned took much more time than we thought. We did circle the Roundstone bog and the Connemara national park, where the “twelve bens” (smallish mountains) stood prominently in the background. In the process, we stopped at Roundstone Village where Malachy Kearns, master Bodhrain maker, has his shop. A bodhrain (in Irish, pronounced bauw-rahn) is a Celtic drum. His instruments are in great demand world-wide. Of course, I couldn’t resist buying one.

The terrain today was unlike anything we had seen so far – rocky and hilly, sprinkled with little lakes. It was a bleak day, which seemed to fit the mood of the place. Clifden is a charming little town where we stopped for tea before we headed north, passing through the village of Letterfrack and the Kylemore Abbey – our last stop before heading home to Galway.

One of dozens of small lakes

Kylemore Abbey

Malacky Kearns bodhrain workshop

Narrow roads and rocky landscape

More lakes and rocks

Some of the "Twelve Bens" in the background

The village of Clifden

View north from Roundstone. An inlet of the Atlantic Ocean

Ancient ruins, green pastures and a rainbow

Monday, September 9, 2013

After we all enjoyed an Irish breakfast at the hotel, Gary and I took a bus to the Shannon Airport to pick up the rental car. So I had to re-learn to drive on the left side of the road. Not too bad except for all the roundabouts. (Look right, turn left!) After our safe return to the hotel, we went on a half-day excursion through pastures and fields populated with horses, cattle and sheep. We stayed off the main roads as much as we could. We went east about 50 miles to the 6^th century Celtic monastery Clonmacnoise. It was founded by a monk by the name of Ciaran, based on the principles of scholarship and piety. Though St. Ciaran died from the plague at the age of 33, the monastery thrived through many plunders by Vikings and Anglo-Normans until the 16^th century when it finally was destroyed by the English. 

We drove through some rain on the way, but when we arrived at the monastery the clouds parted and we were treated to blue sky and white puffy clouds. The view of the Shannon River through the ancient ruins was spectacular. Truly one of the most beautiful places I have seen. Once a year on St. Ciaran's Day, pilgrims come early in the morning to celebrate with silence, prayer and a symbolic walk three times around the grounds. We happened to arrive on that very day – September 9. After a leisurely drive through more small back roads we arrived in Galway in the late afternoon and our day was topped off with a double rainbow.

Our Irish breakfast

Ruins near Clonmacnoise Monastery

Taking a breather

Clouds and crosses

One of the round towers. Looking toward the river

The Shannon River

Double rainbow at the end of the day

All the way to Galway

Sunday, Sept 8

This is a travel day. We said good-bye to Dublin and the east of Ireland and set off for Galway, on the west coast. It was a nice bus trip of only 2 hours or so. We sat in the very back of the bus and made as much trouble as we could. After a short walk to our suite, we explored the little town. Most of the shops were closed, since it was Sunday, but there was a little street market where we managed to spend a few euros. As we strolled along the river we stopped in for a quiet moment of prayer at Galway Cathedral, then visited one of the Irish grocery stores – Lidl – and gathered supplies for making dinner. Our suite has two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living/dining room and a kitchen with all the appliances including a dishwasher and a washer/dryer! Hoorah – we can wash our clothes! As it turned out, the washer/dryer doesn't really dry, so we have wet laundry hanging all over the flat. Tomorrow Gary and I will take a bus to Shannon Airport to pick up our rental car, so we will be afoot no more unless we want to be. We’ll be staying here in Galway for four nights, until we move on to Kenmare on Thursday.

Pub in Galway

Ha'penny Bridge, Dublin

Pausing for a pint

Cruciform pool in the Garden of Remembrance Dublin

Relaxing in our luxurious suite Galway

Street performer Galway

Bog bodies and Tea

Saturday, September 7

Today we stayed in Dublin. It was a day mostly of museums, shopping and walking around the city. Actually, we walked for 7 ½ hours before we got home. We visited the Chester Beatty Library first, which has a number of very early biblical manuscripts, including the earliest-dated fragment of the passage from The Gospel of John where Jesus says from the Cross, “Woman, behold your son.”

Our next stop was the Museum of Archaeology. We saw a few bog bodies. These are corpses of human beings which have been preserved in peat bogs – some of them for centuries. These unfortunates suffered gruesome deaths, suggesting that they may have been ritually tortured and murdered. I won’t go into the details, nor will I post photos, except by request. Many other items have been discovered in the bogs; most buried in large caches. These include a great deal of gold and silver jewelry, and two incredibly ornate bejeweled silver chalices. Also found was a twenty-five foot log boat. After tea in the museum cafe, we headed home. No pubs today; just tea. After many miles of walking we had a light dinner and hit the sack early.

Street musician on the mall in Dublin

Pedestrian warning for Americans

Silver chalice found in peat bog

With Oscar Wilde in Merrion Square 

Ancient wooden wheel from peat bog 400 bce

Brothers out for a stroll Merrion Park Dublin

The Giant's Causeway

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Pillars of hexagonal basalt

Giant's Causeway basalt formation

Sorry for the delay in posting. Sometimes Internet is not available...
The Giant’s Causeway was the main attraction today. It’s a ways from Belfast, so the bus tour took most of the day. Before we left for the day, we found a lovely bakery on Sandy Street, where we ordered sausage on soda (soda bread). They asked if we wanted brown or red with that, which turned out to mean catsup or steak sauce. We added beans to the menu, which nearly rounded out a traditional Irish breakfast. Then we strolled over to the youth hostel where we caught the tour bus. Our driver, Ray, was a talkative gent, who managed to keep us well informed about significant historical events that had taken place along the way. We stopped occasionally for photo ops. Lunch was at Bushmill’s distillery, which now is owned by an Italian chap who also owns Guinness. Nothing is sacred anymore. I had steak and Guinness pie with mashed potatoes and, of course, a wee dram of Bushmill’s finest. Then on to the Giant’s Causeway – a geological phenomenon which is Ireland's only world heritage site. The strange, six-sided stones formed through volcanic action into pillars, some standing 40 feet high. We were told there were 40,000 stones, although we didn't count to confirm this. The legend behind the stones is that two giants – one in Ireland and the other in Scotland across the water – were planning a fight. The Irish giant, Finn McCool (I didn’t make that up) threw stones across the water to make a path. When the Scottish giant approached, Finn could see he was much bigger, so Finn had Mrs. Finn dress him as a baby. The Scottish giant, seeing the baby, ran back, thinking if this is how big the babies are he sure didn’t want to fight the daddy. The scenery at this northernmost tip of Ireland was spectacular. Today – as has been every day so far – was warm, clear and sunny. We arrived back in Belfast about 7:30, stopped at a pub for dinner, and turned in early. Lots of walking today.

Deciding on breakfast

These are the hills where Patrick was forced to tend sheep after he was stolen from is bed as a child

Northern Ireland countryside

Country village on the way to the Giant's Causeway

The northern coast

Rope bridge that Chrissi crossed while we watched

A Black Cab Tour of Belfast

Wednesday, September 4

We went by bus from Dublin to Belfast. Still pretty done in by jet lag, we planned a lighter day. After lunch and a pint we happened upon one of the “black cabs.” These cabs runs special tours, telling the story of “the troubles.” The legend is, most of the drivers on these tours are former members of the IRA, so they know of what they speak. Our guide, Eugene, was a dear man, it seemed to us. His father had been severely injured in a bombing in a pub. We were taken to the loyalist part of town where welfare housing has been built – in some ways like our inner city projects. There we met a colorful man by the name of Louie, who had the gift of gab and not a little blarney. He told us many stories and would have told us many more if we hadn't torn ourselves away. The Irish Troubles are far more complex than I had imagined – both politically and in terms of religious differences – and I don’t pretend to understand the deep-felt emotion, anxiety and pain still felt by so many in Northern Ireland. Even though there has been a truce since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, the tension in Belfast remains palpable.

In the neighborhood we visited on the Protestant side of town, there are many murals painted on the sides of buildings, most celebrating Loyalist “heroes” who fought to maintain British control over Northern Ireland. Their enemies were those who were fighting for Irish self-rule. There were militants on both sides, of course, representing many different political and para-military groups.

On the way back to our hotel, our driver, Eugene stopped at the Peace Wall – a 45-foot high wall that separates the Protestant and Catholic sides of Belfast. Thousands of people have written prayers and messages of peace on the gate and the wall, which runs nearly four miles through the middle of town.

School girls in Belfast

Sampling the fare in one of Belfast's many pubs

Mural in a Protestant neighborhood

One of the peace walls

Eugene and his cab "Lily"

Botanical Gardens, Belfast

The Crown Pub