Ireland Day 3

Day 28 - Ireland - Day 3 (September 26)

Tina was up about 7:00 AM and I soon followed. It was heavily overcast and there was a hint of rain n the air. We had a short drive today so we weren’t in a big rush to get going. By 8:00 AM Tina had the bags packed and we took them down stairs to leave them next to the front door, then went into the dining room for breakfast. Tina had scrambled eggs and ham, I had scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, along with fruit, yogurt, toast and coffee. Replete after breaking our fast we thanked our hostess and took our bags out to the car.

Leaving Cragana we took the back roads along the coast through Oranmore and into Galway. We stopped to get diesel and directions to a laundrette then drove into town proper in search of a parking spot. Eventually I pulled into a loading zone half a block from the laundrette and let Tina off with all our dirty clothes and 15 euros then I went in search of parking. I was lucky, less then a block away was a parking garage.

After getting my ticket and parking I walked over to the elevator and went down two floors ending up in a beautiful shopping mall. The exit door was only a few feet away so out I went. Turning in what I thought might be the correct direction I set off at a good clip to find Tina. Nothing looked familiar so I followed the old scout rule, “Don’t get lost, stick with right hand turns until you figure out where you are”. It worked. After the third turn to the right I ended up on the street where I entered the garage and was looking at the laundrette. Cool! I found Tina!

Thirty five minutes later we finished our laundry, packed up and took the laundry back to the car, or to where I thought the car was. Oooops, I lost the car - damn! Well after some searching we found it and loaded the laundry in it so we could walk around town. Back down the elevator, through the indoor mall and out onto the main shopping street (pedestrian only) we walked along for a ways looking in shop windows until we came to a jewelry store I wanted to visit (had a brochure from last night). We found a couple of items when I remembered we had a discount flyer back at the car. Oooops, well it was only a short walk back to the car to get it along with the map while Tina continued to shop.

Back to the store and we took our items to the counter to purchase and I flourished the discount flyer to the sales person. Oooops, wrong store. Damn! Oh well, we really wanted the items so the sale was completed and on our way we went. Our next stop was the outdoor market where fruits, fresh vegetables, baked goods, clothes, trinkets, etc., were being sold out of small stalls. We bought a couple of bagels for a snack. The walkway between the small stands was probably only four feet on average and it was packed with people. In fact, everywhere was filled with people.

We continued our walk around town finding remnants of the old city wall nestled right up to a new shopping mall. Eventually we ended up at Eyre Square where there were two parades taking place in celebration of Guinness. One was a series of young school children dressed in school colors singing, playing instruments and waving pennants. The other was a marching band playing instruments led by special cars of dignitaries. Quite fun! On our way back to the car we bought a couple of small ice cream cones to complete our mid morning snack.

Finding our way out of town to the coast, we drove west through a half dozen small villages with a couple of stops to walk on the beach and take photos. The roads were narrow but traffic was light. About fifteen miles out of Galway we veared off the main road to stay on the coast winding our way through hills with fields filled with stone walls. In fact, every where you looked, stone walls stood, even along the sides of the road. We came to an intersection that wasn’t on our map so we turned right to find a road sign and ended right back at the point we turned off the main road.

So we turned around and drove back along the main road until we found a sign for R336, turned right and followed it up to the N59, turned left and fourteen miles later turned left on R443 for the three miles to our lodging at Ballynahinch Castle http://www.ballynahinch-castle.com/ . Built in 1756 by the Martin Family and once owned by an Indian Raj, the castle sits in the wilds of Connemaran nestled in beautifully landscaped grounds alongside the Ballynahinch River.
As soon as we registered we were shown to our room, the Maharaja suite in honor of Maharaja Ranjitsihnji, a noted cricketeer for England in the late 1800’s. Pretty cool, huh.

After we unpacked we went for a short walk around the grounds in the late afternoon mist. Tomorrow morning we plan to take a short hike, its very beautiful here. After our walk we sat in the downstairs pub and had apot of tea while we read the Irish Independent newspaper.
Later, up in our room, we folded and packed all our newly laundered clothes and dressed for dinner. Going down to the dining room around 6:00 PM we were shown to a table by the window overlooking the river where we watched salmon coming to the surface as the sun lightened the western sky.

We had an amazing dinner, starting with a crab appetizer for me and a stuffed cannelloni appetizer for Tina. This was followed by a small lamb roast (medium rare) with parsley scalloped potatoes for me while Tina had the Chicken Ballatine with Gnoche. This was followed by Coffee and two wonderful deserts, Connemara Berry Cheesecake for Tina and Warm Chocolate Lava Cake for me. Simply the best meal we’ve had on our trip!! After dinner we retired upstairs to our room to relax and watch a little TV before the end of a very nice day.