A Week In Ireland, Part 2

Tuesday, June 25, 2018

Breakfast at 8 and a city walk at 9, then off on a bus tour of Connamara.

 Alan started our tour in Eyre Square, also known as JFK Memorial Park

Notice the facade of the wall and chimney between the green and white building.  You can still see the original window buried on the roof of the white building.

This is called Lynches Castle, although town home would be a better description.

Love the gargoyles 

This is part of the Lynch mythology.  The tale is that a Lynch father had to hunt down and hang his own son, by the neck.  In other words, lynch him. Is this where the term comes from?  Don't know, but the locals seem to think so.

Our tour guide Alan.

Galway

The Irish believe that rabbits are the curious ones, not cats.  This one is looking out to sea.

The River Corrib

The Spanish Arch, built in 1584

The Atlantic Ocean comes way into this bay that doesn't seem to have a name of its own.

These are peat logs.  They cut the turf into logs, let it dry then it can be burned as fuel, or by the Scotch makers in Scotland.

This is the River Guinness, which is where they filmed the 1952 John Wayne movie "The Quite Man"

They also used this bridge in the movie

Driving along the Lough

If peat is an old energy source, wind is the new source

We stopped in Connemra at the Marble cutting factory

The next stop was the new Galway Cathedral to see the Connemara Marble in use

It makes for beautiful floors

Beautiful windows in this reatively new building, built in the 1960's

Check out this pipe organ

More marble floors

Then it was back to our hotel to get ready to go out to the Medieval Banquet. Located about an hour away, we had to take the bus to get there.

Knappogue Castle

 The staff was wonderful in their roles, and the food was outstanding

 The waitstaff were also the entertainment 

 After dinner and a quick costume change, the music and dancing began

Sunset was outstanding