Walk About Wednesday

A very nice sleep in today as we enjoyed the views from our window. Kelly is feeling much better and is set for the day we hope.
 

Life can be tough.... but not right now!

I took a little stroll about as she got ready. Upon my return we headed down for our breakfast. It was delicious. This is the first solid food for Kelly in a while.
 

Amazing!

Town Center

Kelly is happy!

Our B&B Breakfast area.

We decided to stroll the Ashford Castle grounds which allows access (with restrictions) and was stunning to see. We had some expert guidance from Martha our B&B host, on how to gain access via the walking loop. We walked by the skeet shooting range and equestrian center and onto the famous grounds. The various gardens were very nice and went on and on. I became a de-facto guide when people asked how to locate certain places:-)
 

Ashford Castle

Guard Duty!

Our chopper at Ashford Castle

More Ashford Castle

Just some of the Walled Gardens

Amazing views

Stunning!

 

Ashford Panoramic

 We retraced our steps off the property and found the local Pigeon Hole walking loop. This took us by several interesting sights including the Guinness Tower which I climbed to the top of and the Pigeon Hole cave which I actually went into hunting a geocache! DNF!

 

Guinness Tower.... I've been to the top!

Built 100 years before Kelly was born!

We worked our way past the Abbey and grabbed a geocache at the Quiet Man Monument. We watched another geocacher trying to get it and joined up to find it. 10km of walking today according to Kelly's health app...which equates to 3.7543 Guinness on my beer app!
 
We walked around and settled on the Puddle Duck Cafe for lunch. It was good once again.... "No bad food here" should be the motto!
 
We finally stopped for a cold pint at the Pat Cohen Bar and also settled on a time for dinner. 6:45 was chosen and we retired back to our B&B to relax and get ready. 

Kris was on a London overnight so we called him and got caught up on his latest guitar purchase. He seems totally stoked about it... and he should be!
 
Dinner was great then it was off to Lyndon's Lodge for some Irish entertainment! A trio put on a variety of music with several different instrument played. Also a little Irish step dancing thrown in.

Off to the rack once again!

The Quiet Woman

Up at 8am again as we prep for the next leg of our journey. We just thought a nice quiet retreat near a lake was in order so Kelly booked us an AirB&B in Cong which is just north of Galway about 50 km or so.

GPS Routing will be... R337  to R338, N84 to Headford, R334 & R346 to Cong

I showered up and started packing. Kelly is not feeling 100% as she has some dizziness from her inner ear. I went off and grabbed a couple coffees and brought them back.  We also enjoyed some croissants that we purchased the previous day. Well I did anyway!

We are moving slowly as Kelly got ready while I loaded bags into the car. I took a last stroll of the area and enjoyed the views that it provided.

Salthill buidings

Many colors made for a great picture.

Great gardens as well.

There is a certain "right of way rule" that applies here!

On our way at 13:15 and quickly out of the city after a short stop to sort out some "vertigo issues".  We had planned to stop at the local RC field but the gate was locked and traffic was a bit crazy due to some road work. If you do go... just past Curraghline, cross a small river on a bridge and take the first right turn to the gate

We continued on to our B&B in Cong and arrived at 14:00.  I went and met with our host Martha and she kindly gave me the choice of two rooms overlooking the river. I picked the one with the biggest bathroom of course:-) This is the nicest B&B we have ever been in... the band should have come here!!

Our B&B in Cong... top right window with the shades drawn:-)

I managed to get Kelly sorted and then brought up our luggage. Kelly continues to have some vertigo issues and is taking life very gingerly right now. With her comfortably settled,  I went out and explored the area on my own while she rested.

There is a fish hatchery right next door with river access via a nice pathway. I headed off looking for some lucky fisherman with a catch. No luck but I did see fish jumping at one point.

River flows across the road.

Very tranquil. 

 For those that are unaware, Cong is the location of some filming of the 1952 Classic "The Quiet Man" staring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. Wikipedia here

Ode to the filming of The Quiet Man

Bronze Statue of John Wayne & Maureen O'Hara

 There is a museum dedicated to this film along with several locations in Cong that served as movie sets for the filming... like the pub etc! This is one of the main tourist draws for the area.

The famous Pat Cohan Pub in Cong.

I stopped in at the famed Pat Cohen Pub and had a pint after the loooong drive. I was parched I tell you! The Cong Abbey made for some nice photos as I strolled around the grounds and checked out some of the pathways that adjoin the Abbey and river area. We will do these tomorrow when Kelly is feeling better.

Cong Abbey

Cong Abbey

More Abbey shots

Cong Abbey

Cong Abbey

The river... so peaceful!

 The monk's fishing house was built in and around the mid 15th century and was used to make the task of catching fish easier. It is built on a platform of stones over a small arch that allows water to pass underneath it making it easy to net fish

The Monk' s Fishing House

Amazing view.

I checked back with Kelly and as she was feeling better, we took a short stroll around the town and some of it's pathways. A few supplies (banana, crackers and sprite was my dinner) at the local Spar store and back to the room for the evening.

In a fitting tribute, we looked up "The Quiet Man" on the net and streamed the movie to our iPads. A nice finish to the evening!

Galway- Our Rain day!

We made it through another rainy night!

Up at 8 and a short walk in for coffee & breakfast. Walked around but it's raining hard so... seeing as the casino was open we popped in to see what an Irish casino looked like. It's full of slots with a couple electronic roulette tables. I think there were only 3 people in the  place so Kelly spotted a machine and dropped in €5. In four spins it hit for a €50 payout! We left😄 👍

We went back to the flat and grabbed the car for some rainy sightseeing/geocaching. Kelly also elected to use her Hunter Wellie boots as her shoes were suffering water leakage.

Wellie boot time!

 On the way we stopped for some diesel for the car ($1.79cdn a liter) and headed into town. We found some parking and walked over to the Galway City Museum... which it turns out, is closed Mondays! Arghh!

River Corrib

We walked over to the High Street area with shops galore. Kelly was in her glory! Wool shop after wool shop to investigate.

High Street in Galway

Well said!

Old bars in these parts.

High Street 2

 We went in and listened to the organ player at St Nicholas Collegiate Church. He played beautiful music so we sat & listened. Lots of interesting dedications on the walls & stain glass of course.

Amazing music!

Gorgous Stain Glass

Dedication to Jane Eyre

More shop stops as we worked our way around the area. Lots to see and plenty of eateries for every type of food. As the rains continued we decided on the Movie Dunkirk playing at the IMC theater.. nice way to be inside for a few hours. The movie was very good.

It appears as though the eclipse happens every day on the west coast of Ireland!

Back to drop the car off and walk over to the center of Salthill. Kelly is famished do we set out to fix that problem. An early dinner at the Oslo followed by a nice walk along the waterfrontduring a break in the rain.It is now the nicest it's been since our arrival. Kelly spotted a leprechaun's car and had a picture taken proving once and for all that they do exist!

Yep it belongs to a Leprechaun!

Finally in the water... sort of!

Beach rock.

Black Rock Diving Tower.. lots of people out there!

 Back at the flat, we relaxed and enjoy the rest of the evening. Tired tonight so an early one for us.

Galway Girl here we come!

FYI "Galway Girl" is a popular Irish song that we have heard many times now! Just seems appropriate :-)

Kelly made coffee and we relaxed in our room prior to breakfast. Same cloudy, rain filled skies this morning unfortunately. See a trend here!

We are doing a little bit of planning on the fly as we had done none prior to the Galway portion. We looked at some airB&B's around the area and found a nice one up in Cong for the 22nd & 23rd. (This is the place that the movie "Quiet Man" was filmed many years ago and also home to Ashford Castle. It's a bit old... first built in 1228)

We headed downstairs for our full Irish breakfast.. again.Kelly filled out a post card for Lauren and we planned the route to the B&B in Galway. (Route planning via google maps to Galway(via N67 then N18 then N6)

Enjoying our morning coffee. Irish breakfast on the way!

Texted with Kris as he is boarding his flight back to Victoria via Toronto & Vancouver. All good with his flights.

We departed at 0:27 and had a wet drive around the various bays and towns that dot the coastline via Ballyvaughan, Bealaclugga, Kinvarra, Kilcolgan, Clarinbridge and Oranmore to Galway. Couple of nice churches that we planned to stop at but being Sunday they were pre-booked :-)

Once in Galway (Salthill area) we went to find the B&B and parked out front at 11:55. Pretty good time considering we didn't rush and the weather was crappy. I set up the car gps as "home" and because our chekin time was 2PM, we went for a nice drive out west to see the area.  The beach area is very close and we quickly found our dinner spot Da Robertas this evening! The dinner is with Paul Houlihan, former Team Manager of the Irish F3A Team that I met in Muncie, IN years ago at the Worlds. Easy 5 minute walk for us.

The weather is not great with 15 knot winds and continuous rain coming down. We headed west to Spiddal West and checked out the wee town. We stopped out on the pier that had no docks, just the boats moored for the tidal flow. Much different from what we see at home.  A return back towards Galway with s stop for lunch at a Padraicins Seafood Bar & Restaurant. The seafood chowder was excellent along with the smoked salmon salad. High Recommendation from us!

The port in Spiddal. Boats are rear roped to a pulley and pulled in to access.

Our ride for the week.

After lunch it was back to the airB&B in Salthill to unload our luggage. We met Suzie the proprietor and her daughter Emma and quickly settled in to the room. It's a large room with a huge window looking out onto the street with a double bed, separate shower and a toilet in a room next door. It will work well for us. The internet is ballistic here! Only dream of this back home!

Can't complain about internet speed here!

We went for a walk down to the main shopping area of Salthill with its many casinos. FYI We did not know about the Casinos!!  As this is a summer tourist "meca" the casinos are here to extract money from the tourist crowd.

We grabbed a few items for the room and headed back to relax. Showered and ready we headed off to the  Oslo Pub to meet Paul and his wife Ros for a drink

Paul and I get caught up.... Irish style!

After introductions we had a drink and delved into conversation. Lots of RC stuff as well as local spots of interest for our travels and explorations over the next few days. Dinner was across the street at Da Robertas and it was fantastic. We had a great evening learning of Ros's new found family and Paul's RC exploits. ( I know where his RC field is so hopefully a stop in on Tuesday!)

It was great to get caught up and always nice to see people that are local but you also have a previous connection with. We hope to reciprocate the visit if they ever get to the west coast of Canada sometime.

One last stop at O'Conners (our band-mates would love this place!) for a drink then a quick 5 minute walk home and it was into the rack. A great day all round.

(Also texted with Kris... in YYZ now and on the 16:10 flight to YVR ....sitting in a big seat of course!

Doolin and Area

Up at 8am and we headed downstairs for our full Irish breakfast. It was delicious as was the coffee.

Texted with Kris and the gang. Off to the pier after picking up Kris from his B&B and meeting his nice host. We met everyone and had a look at the passenger boats loading up then making their way across to the Aran Isles. The boats pounded through the surf and Kelly was getting sick just watching them.  Glad she was not on it!

A tad windy!!

Boats loading passengers.

 We stopped back at the shops and said our goodbyes to the Mackays and Kris. They are heading back to Dublin now to catch a certain show at the Merchant's Arch.

Kelly & Shelley shopped the various woolen shops that made of the commercial part of the town... or should I just say road. Kelly found a nice sweater and then it was off to the woolen mill (actually just another store) Doug & Shelley then headed back to Dublin and we headed over to see the Cliffs of Moher. It looked pretty busy so we headed down the hill to the town of Liscannor.  Yep another wool shop to peruse while I did blog notes 😄

Around the bend was another coastal community of Lahinch. A huge sandy beach was home to surfers, kite surfers and swimmers!!!  It's 14 degrees out!! They also have a nice golf course adjacent to the beach area.

Lahinch, Ireland

Pano of the bay.

 We stopped and parked at a Vantage point and hiked over to the cliff edge. Panoramic views of the beach & golf courses.

Latte time for us as we walked the streets of Lahinch. The huge beach is a very popular surf area with a large amount for surf shops and schools. Although cool by our standards everyone is enjoying the water it seems.

Kelly also grabbed a post card for Lauren then we headed to the Cliffs of Moher . Huge crowds and a full parking lot made us skip it until later when everyone was headed home:-)

Back towards Doolin with a drive through to countryside. We stopped at The Smokehouse in Burren and sampled some salmon before crossing the street for our first Irish Geocache.

Cliffs of Moher

.Queen and her castle

More great views.

A little windy but dry!!

Amazing views!

 After a quick pit stop at the B&B we headed back to the Cliffs to get some exercise :-) Amazing views as the weather was cooperating nicely. (No rain!)

Back to Doolin to drop the car off and walk down the street. A little reconnoiter and we found a nice spot for dinner. It was right beside McGanns Pub and it is called The Riverside Bistro. Incredibly good mussels and caprice salad to start and then a fabulous stuffed chicken dinner for Kelly and a steak dinner for myself. Very good.

Back to the B&B to relax and unwind. Our bodies are in shock though.... no pub food lol

Surfing the net for a B&B later in the week... thinking lakeside now.