August 12, 2017 – Galway and Connemara Tour

Breakfast buffet at the Harbour Hotel is very nice and like the others contains all the makings for a Full Irish as well as an assortment of cereals, including two gluten-free ones, and fruit, yogurt, and meats and cheeses for the Europeans.  Coffee and tea are delivered to your table and there are brown, and white sugar “balls” with a tiny sugar tong.

We will be walking to the meeting place for the tour, so we double check the directions and leave extra early to allow time for getting lost.  We were told it would be a five- or ten-minute walk, but those are Irish minutes.  It takes us twenty, and we are still the first to arrive at the coach station for our particular tour, although there are other people lining up and checking in for about a half dozen other tours.

Because we’re early, we get two of the few seats and the young man assures us that, although other people are now beginning to queue up, we will be the first to board because we arrived first!

We choose a seat in the middle of the window, for easy of shooting, and presently everyone is situated and our driver, Martin, begins our tour of the Connemara, a section of Ireland along the “Wild Atlantic”, with limestone mountains and two rounded valleys resulting from glaciation, large lakes, and sandy beaches.  The famous Connemara marble is still quarried here; but only one quarry remains in operation. 

We begin our journey on a national road, but soon find ourselves on smaller, narrower roads, and the vegetation whips by just a foot or so from the windows!  Once again, I remember how grateful I am not to be driving!

The "Quiet Man" bridge

The day is filled with beauty and Martin allows time for many photo stops in addition to the longer ones. His commentary is laced with the traditional Irish humor but he also includes a lot of factual information and must be a film (he pronounces the “m” at the end so the word is effectively two syllables.) buff.  We see the bridge from “The Quiet Man” and learn that John Ford was Irish, although born in the USA, and his last name was Feeney.  Martin knows all the actors and plot lines of many of his movies!  We learn about “The Bridge”, too, and Martin recommends that we watch them both.

Our first “comfort” stop is the village of Leenane, the setting for Ford’s “The Field” and we see the bar which was used in the film.  

Farmers' market and sheep auction.

The bar scene in "The Field" was shot here.

Harvesting the mussel crop

The mussels grow on lines attached to these floats.

Sheep on the road

Bogs where the peat is cut.

Next major stop is the Killary Fjord.

The longest stop is at Kylemore Abbey, where we are supposed to have two hours, but Martin gives us an extra fifteen minutes.  And we use them all!  In addition to the Abbey itself, there is a walled Victorian garden, which is about a mile away.  There is a shuttle every ten minutes and we line up right away.  Still, we have to wait for the second bus and after seeing the garden we decide to walk back.  The line for the return trip is more than two bus-loads long!  The walk is about a mile and we still get back to the visitors’ center before the second bus!  Score!  The abbey is right next door and we tour the ground floor, which is the only one open to visitors. 

The abbey was built by Mitchel Henry in 1886 for his beloved bride, who only lived there a few years before she died on their trip to Egypt. He brought her body home and had a mausoleum built for her.  He was the best employer in the area and descendants of his original workers still work on the property.

Originally the structure was a castle and only became an abbey in 1921 when it was purchased by the Benedictine nuns, who turned it into a school which only closed a few years ago.  There is also a miniature Gothic cathedral on the property;  but it would take more than the time we had to visit everything!  As it was, we waited an extra ten minutes for two of our party to return and when they still hadn’t shown up, Martin made arrangements with another driver to take them home.

There were several more photos stops, including Martin’s favorite little waterfall, and we passed through an area where everyone speaks Irish and none of the signs on any of the roads or buildings are in English.  We can see the Aran Islands, just across the water and Martin tells us that for forty-five euros we can fly there in eight minutes with Air Eire.  They have light-weight nine-seater planes and say there is no time for in-flight cocktails for airplane magazines!

People are dropped off near their accommodations and we choose to get off near Eyre Square so that is will be only a short walk to down town and the pub and music action!  Our hotel had told us about a pub, Taaffes, that has a session form 5:30 to 7:00 every night and we make it there by about six.  That’s enough time to have a pint of Guinness (or a half pint in Connie’s case) and enjoy the music before going to dinner.

Never got a great shot of the incredible wild flowers that grow alongside all the roads - but only while the bus is speeding along, never where we stop!!

Connemara traffic jam

The beach!

Even though the evening is very young (it won’t even be dark for another couple of hours) the Latin Quarter and Quay Street are bustling with activity.  There are buskers everywhere, mostly musicians, but one enterprising young man had put down a ground cloth and topped by a mound of sand which he has sculpted into a dog! There’s the unicycle rider/comedian and three little girls who are excellent Irish dancers!  Everyone seems to be under twenty-five and are eager to see and be seen and the energy level is really high,

Our hotel

There’s a place nearly next door called The King’s Head and we are able to get a table.  We quickly choose a dish called “Best of Irish Platter” and it arrives almost instantly, because it is all cold foods.  There are slices of corned beef, McGeoughs smoked Connemara lamb, smoked Kassler, Killeen goats cheese, Cashel blue cheese, pickled beetroot salad, and crusty bread with tomato and apple relish.  It’s all delicious but the goat cheese is the big surprise because it is sliceable and looks like a slice of white cheddar!

 We easily find our way home and order Bailey’s decaf coffees to take to our room!  A lovely way to end a very full and enjoyable day!  Tomorrow a driver picks us up at ten and takes us to Bunratty!