IRELAND: CONNEMARA LOOP

Tuesday, August 19th - Day 7

We started the day off again with a tradition Irish breakfast. I asked Pat, the owner of the B & B, if he had that breakfast every morning. He said that most Irish people only have the Irish breakfast for brunch, and that they definitely don't have it everyday. Oops! Well, I certainly was feeling the effects of an (almost) every day Irish breakfast, but I was glad to enjoy it while I could!

Our plan for the day was to drive around the Connemara/ Mayo County Loop. The drive alone takes at least 5 hours, so we got started early. I was SO grateful for our GPS! I just typed in the city we wanted to go to and off we went!

We noticed that there were quite a few hitchhikers along the route. Nick was tempted every time we saw one to pick them up. He would say out loud, "I'm so sorry" as we would drive by them. I had no problem saying no, but I'm also a girl that grew up in California. Females don't pick up hitchhikers. 

We stopped in the town of Cong (Yes, like King Kong) to see the Ashford Castle and Cong Abbey. 

We started with Cong Abbey.

He looks so cute in his new hat. :)

If it looks like I'm cold that's because I was. In the shade it felt like it was about 45 degrees Fahrenheit out. I was wearing sandals and a dress! Doh!

The only other souls to be seen in the Abbey at 10 in the morning were a couple from California. Ha! We're everywhere!  

We walked into the Abbey gardens and onto the Monks' Fishing Hut. This area is known for some of the best salmon fishing. The monks used the hut to catch the salmon. They lowered a net through the floor and attached a bell to a rope. The bell would ring when they caught a fish! How clever!

Today the hole in that floor is also a good spot for boys to use the restroom. (Don't ask how I know this.)

We could have just stayed here forever. For several days, I had been carrying a half-loaf of bread in my purse in hopes that we could feed some birds. We saw some swans down the river. We tried to coerce them over by throwing the bread as far as we could. They just moved farther away from us. I think we likely fed more fish that day than birds. 

Next we took a 15 minute walk over to the Ashford Castle from the Abbey.

We had to pay 5 Euro each to cross the bridge and view the gardens. I half expected a troll to pop out from under the bridge. 

There were statues of Irish Wolf hounds outside the front of the castle. When I turned around there were two huge Irish Wolf Hounds running around the lawn in front of the castle. It was pretty magical. They really look like small horses. Nick and I thought it would be so fun to have one! But I sure wouldn't want to pick up after them!

Believe it or not, you can actually stay the night in this castle. Rooms start at a reasonable 250 Euro and go up to 1000 Euro a night. :P

Apparently, there was a stunt here to promote Red Bull Diving from a helicopter! The man jumped straight into the lake from the helicopter! They were trying to gain publicity, so people would watch the actual compition done at the WORM HOLE on the Aran Islands. (where we'd been the day before) I knew it had looked like a good diving spot! I should sign up to be a professional red bull pool finder. 

We strolled through the garden for about 20 minutes on the cool, crisp morning. 

We heard people getting closer. There was a hawk-walk passing by. Each person on the walk got to hold the hawk and let it fly to the nearest tree. It was fun to watch!

Even though we wouldn't be staying the night here, I wanted to peek inside. There was a sign outside saying, "Hotel Guests Only." (They were very accommodating.) The lobby was beautiful. I was distracted by one of the Irish Wolf hounds. He was huge and only 7 months old. The owner lived and worked on the property. He was trying to train the dog, but he said he couldn't teach him some of the traditional tricks. He said if the dog "gave a paw," he could easily knock down a child. I had never thought of that! He really was like a small horse! Afterward, I could have kicked myself! I had completely forgotten to take a photo of the dog/horse. :)

On our walk back to the car I spotted a fisherman in the river. It looked so peaceful. 

The next town we came to was Westport. 

We parked and walked up to Matt Molloy's pub. Mr. Malloy is the flutist in the band the Chieftain's. We walked in and there wasn't a soul in sight. (We found out later they don't serve lunch.)We walked a little farther up to Westport Willow cafe tea room. 

It looked busy, so it must have been good! We grabbed the only available seats. The waitresses were running around trying to keep up with the crowd. Nick ordered a Chicken Tikka salad sandwich and I ordered blue cheese and pear on brown bread. It was so yummy! We realized that traveling anywhere outside of Italy meant indulging on anything non-Italian. 

We wanted to wander through the town, but it started to pour. We ran to the car, and went on with our day. 

We came across this Famine Memorial first. It was huge. Millions of people died during the potato famine from 1845-49. Some tried to make it across the Atlantic on ships that weren't seaworthy. Most didn't make it because the horrible living conditions on the ship. The few that made the journey all the way across didn't always live long once on shore. Times were certainly tough then. It made me very grateful that I didn't have to survive on potatoes for my main source of nutrients. 

Across the ship from the Famine Memorial is Croagh Patrick. The small mountain's peek is 2500 feet. The last Sunday in July, pilgrims journey to the top of the mountain - many of them without shoes. It's a 3 hour hike up and 2 hour hike down. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to do it. Next trip! :)

Next we drove through the Doo Lough Valley. There were sheep everywhere!

Here's Nick talking to the sheep along the road.  There was no fence blocking them from the road. They just wandered anywhere they pleased. 

More sheep...

As beautiful as this area was - it had a sad story to tell. This area was the hardest hit in the Potato Famine. 600 starving Irish walked 12 miles down this road from Louisburgh to Delphi Lodge in hopes that their landlord would give them food. They were all turned away. Only 400 returned home. 

Nick's pondering face. 

We stopped 30 minutes later down at the Aaleagh Falls. We could spot salmon trying to jump up the waterfall. 

Nick had to stop and pick some berries ...and smell the roses.  ;)

Those buoys in the Killary Harbor are mussel farms growing on hanging nets. 

A few miles down the road we spotted Bog lands! I found these so interesting. Irish use peat, or cut up bog land, as fuel for fire. Some people LOVE the smell. I found it smelled a lot like a burning emergency break on a car. I confused the two smells on our trip many, many times. 

The bogs once covered about 20 percent of Ireland. During WWI it was used to soak up blood because it absorbs many times it's weight in fluid.  

In the photo above, Nick is jumping on the ground. I could feel it from where I was standing. 

This was his FAVORITE photo from the day. Boy humor. 

It was so light!

We got a lot of funny looks from people as they drove by, but we didn't care. It was so fun getting out and exploring! (Maybe these weren't really bogs and that was why we kept getting so many funny looks!) Haha!

Next we made a quick stop at Kylemore Abbey. Rick Steves said it wasn't worth the money to see it, but it was worth at least a good shot from the parking lot. 

There were SO many people there!  

It was so odd seeing SO many tourists. The roads we were driving on were fairly empty, and we hadn't seen many people on our drive up to that point. They just appeared out of nowhere!

After a very quick look at Kylemore Abbey we headed off to the Coastal Connemara lumpy loop. We stopped to take a few pics on the beach. Nick was really tempted to jump in the water. (He even brought his swimsuit along)

I asked him if he would take a photo of me. Thinking he was getting a picture of my dress blowing in the wind behind me, I looked at the photos after and they were just of the back of my head. Ha!

Since it was so cold, Nick decided against the swim. 

We drove about 30 minutes before landing in the town of Roundstone. We stopped to get a warm drink.

We happened to walk into a cafe with the grumpiest woman I've ever met. I asked if we could get two cafe mochas to go. She looked at me and said, "That's IT?!" Haha! I started to explain myself (as if I needed to) and she just walked away. Nick and I looked at each other and started laughing!

We were glad we decided to take them to go. 

There was a beautiful harbor that we walked our warm drinks were no longer keeping us warm. 

We passed this beautiful lake on the last part of our journey before an hour and a half drive home. 

I had always imagined sheep being cute and fluffy. But they aren't nearly as clean and cute as I had imagined. It was still fun seeing them up close though.

When we got back to the B & B we thought we would try the walk into Galway. It was about 25 minutes along the beach. We decided now was a good time to wear our anniversary sweaters!!

We thought we got lost a few times on our walk to Galway, but managed to follow a few college-aged kids into town.

There was art all over the Galway. I loved this more subtle piece. 

My first pic in my sweater!!

We walked back down Quay Street in Galway. I noticed a statue that my friend Heather Foster had taken a picture with on her trip to Ireland the year before. A couple was kind and offered to take our photo.  Aran Island Sweater picture! Doesn't Nick's look good?!

I noticed a few other women wearing my exact same sweater! I tried to get a sneaky photo with one of them. She was standing in the middle of the pedestrian street, and I stood behind her. Nick walked about 20 feet ahead of me, and turned to take the photo. She thought he was trying to take a picture of her, so she walked away. None of the pictures turned out well because we were moving too quickly, but we laughed about it!

As we walked back from dinner at a Thai restaurant, Nick gave this man a coin. He was very entertaining and he sure had a lot to say! He told us he deeply regretted letting his lady go when he was young. He said to treat your wife right and she'll stay. He looked right at Nick and said THAT was the only thing that was important in life. I thought that was a sweet message!

We walked around a few pubs before heading back to the B & B. The first pub was Monroe's. We sat at a table with an Italian woman named Toni and and Irish woman named Cathy. Toni was in Ireland studying English, and she was staying with Cathy. Cathy was convinced that Nick and I needed to have children right away. She was one of 18. She asked what our 'signs' were. We told her that we were both Gemini and that Nick was a twin. She said, "That's it! You're going to have Irish twins, and you'll name them Cathy and Toni." Haha!

We got to see about an hour of Irish music and dancing. We said goodbye to our new friends, and walked to The Quays pub after that. The band there was my favorite. They played a few GREAT songs. 

We walked up to a third pub called Taaffee's. That pub was packed with people to the point that there was hardly standing room. We decided it was probably best to go home. 

We were a little sad to leave Galway, the Aran Islands, and Connemara. It was so different than the other areas we'd already seen, but just as beautiful! 

On day 8 we'd be driving up to Portrush in Northern Ireland to see Giant's Causeway and the Rope Bridge. We couldn't wait...