…and Away We Go!

We’ve been home a week or more and have settled back into our daily routines.

On our last day before traveling home, we returned our rental car with few noticeable dents and checked into the Premier Inn near the Dublin Airport.  It’s a basic airport hotel that was perfect for our final night in Ireland.  Two Euros got us a seat on the shuttle to the airport and we were on our way!

One quick note about the airport in Dublin…if you’re there, allow plenty of time as there are TWO security checks plus U.S. Customs and Immigration.  It would be so easy to get sidetracked without realizing how much time is needed for the final security checks.

Ireland is a fun and beautiful destination!

It’s right in the middle of Ireland and a last minute addition to our itinerary.  The city of Athlone has a cathedral, a castle, the largest shopping center in Ireland, a small museum, the Shannon River running through town and Sean’s Pub reportedly, built in AD 900!

This is a view of the Cathedral from our room this morning.

We couldn’t believe our eyes when we walked into our room at the Raddison Blu!  We came from a hit-your-head-on-the-sloping-ceiling room in Galway to a family-sized, two-room space with a King-sized bed, 3 twin beds, 5 chairs, 2 sofas and lots of space to move around without bumping into each other!  It was quite comfortable!

We found this cute shop for breakfast and we’re lucky enough to arrive just when the orange poppyseed scones were coming out of the oven.  They were served with with butter and blueberry jam!  The coffee was great too!

There is a nice river walk in Athlone (pronounced Ath-lone as the lone in the Lone Ranger is pronounced. )

The streets of Athlone look a little dreary but walking into the city’s slick, new mall felt like entering an alternate universe!  It has very modern shops, like Marks & Spencer, H & M, Zara, Starbucks and many more!  

I also visited the small museum and was really impressed by the educational programs available to the public!  The Museum itself is free.

Friends at the Pitts Theology Museum might find this shop interesting!  Liturgical Book Restorers!

Athlone was a fun destination with surprises around every corner!

It was rainy and dreary when we left Galway on Thursday but we’d decided to see some villages in the interior so we set our route for Clonmacnoise.  It’s an ancient monastic site founded in AD 548 near the banks of the Shannon River.  The site has a long, complicated history and a twenty-minute video gave us the full story.  

There are many graves and high crosses in very good condition.

And the remains of several churches.

The video, museum with many artifacts, and a walk around the actual site made Clonmacnoise an interesting stop.  

If the weather had been better, we would have spent more time exploring the villages in this region but we abandoned that plan and drove on to our next stop Athlone!

We’re still having pretty weather but with a threat of rain in the forecast, we headed for the Galway Museum.  It’s free, has a diverse collection and is very informative! 

We liked these early glass wine bottles of various shapes and sizes.

And Larry liked the mock-up of a submarine!

From there we went to browse in a local bookstore.  These are the Top 5 Best Sellers in Galway right now.

We’re staying in a B & B not far from downtown so we can walk everywhere. The new owner Steven has only been a B & B owner for three weeks!  He’s doing a great job and has been fully booked nearly every night since he took over from the previous owner September 1.

Our room is humble with sloping ceilings that we periodically bump our heads on.  It’s clean and cozy so we’re happy.

Our room,

And, here’s the exterior of The Asgard House.

For lunch today we went to a tiny, cute place called The Pie Maker.  They make and serve creative small pies with fillings like Irish sausage, black pudding, roasted red peppers and Madeira or kale, eggplant, goat cheese and roasted nuts. Here’s the pie maker and me!

We’ll leave Galway tomorrow for the Lake region and the small village of Athlone.   We’re making our way back to Dublin for our flight on Friday.  We’ve only seen a tiny portion of Ireland…more sights left to discover on future travels!  Home soon!

Salthill is a seaside resort on the northern shore of Galway Bay and it’s an easy walk from downtown Galway.  We began our walk late morning and finished 7.5 miles by the time we returned in the afternoon.

On way, we had a good view of the Cathedral from the bridge over the Corrib River,

And saw some pretty fuschia flowers.

It was lunchtime when we arrived in Salthill and we found the Gourmet Tart Company.  The food here is creative–especially our open-faced crab sandwich.  The crab salad was served on brown Irish bread topped with red wine poached pear slices and capers.  A unique and delicious combo.

The Salthill Promenade offers great views of Galway Bay,

Lots of tiny seashells,

And artistic displays of seaweed.

We were there during low tide but apparently it’s a bit treterous walking at certain times.

We’ll be in Galway one more day before we move on!  It’s been a good day!

Sunday morning we left Murphy’s B & B in Dingle and started the 3.5 hour drive from Dingle to Galway.

On our way out of town, we stopped at this modern super market for snacks for the trip.  

We made another stop for gas, plugged in the GPS and headed for the roadway that would take us to Galway.  For navigation, Larry loads an old phone with maps before we leave home using an app called “Here Wego”.  This app gives us off-line navigation without a data connection and is available for both iPhone and Android.  Larry downloads specific maps for each country we are visiting before we leave home.  This photo shows the set-up.

We made good time and arrived in Galway with plenty of time to walk around town.  It’s the fourth largest city in Ireland and busier than we expected it to be on a Sunday afternoon.  This is one of the major shopping streets.

Here, trees are just beginning to show signs of fall color.

On our way around town, we stopped to see the Galway Cathedral–a massive structure built in 1965.

Our final stop was for dinner at An Pucan where we watched bartenders pour perfectly proper glasses of Guinness!  Cheers!

The climate in the village of Dingle must be perfect for growing and even though it’s late in the season, things are still blooming.  There are flowers everywhere and we found these twin orange blossoms especially beautiful!

We arrived in Dingle two days ago.  The town is quaint and this time of year, mostly inhabited by American travelers.  The local shopkeepers are surprised by how busy this September has been–typically a less touristy time.

Friday is Market Day in Dingle and carrots and potatoes are bountiful.

You can’t find carrots much more fresh than these!

Music is one of the main reasons to come to Dingle.  We spent over four hours in a Dingle pub called An Droicead Beag–not so much to drink Guinness but, to listen to incredible musicians perform.  We were lucky to hear Kevin Conneff of The Chieftains who is in town and dropped in to play traditional music with local talent!  We’ve long been fans of The Chieftans so this was a unique and special experience for us!

Music in session below–by midnight the room was jam-packed!  We made fast friends with couples from Calgary, Canada and Des Moines, Iowa.

Another evening we attended a concert of traditional music at St. James Church.

Larry visited Dingle many years and returned with a treasured souvenir lamb from this shop on Main Street.

Today these hand-knitted lambs are in great demand and sell for 31.50 Euros and are only available on their website at www.commodum.ie.

Saturday in Dingle is blustery, rainy and a good day to go to the local library to read, search for a steaming bowl of seafood chowder, and prepare for our next stop–Galway!