Ireland Day 3 Galway

Location: Galway/Connemara National Park
B&B: Prague House
Attractions: Kylemore Abbey, Connemara Hiking Trails, Aughnanure Castle
Beer of Choice: Took the night off from drinking

We woke up and headed down to breakfast around 9am and had amazing yogurt and granola, fruit, and french toast with bacon. Jill had some coffee and didn’t know to press the coffee plunger down on the french press before pouring it, so that coffee wasn’t the best. Once we got fueled up, we made our way to see the Kylemore Abbey, a beautiful castle built in the 1800’s. The ride there consisted of beautiful rolling mountains and sheep peppered hills. The sheep all had spray paint on them, I’m assuming so that the farmers know which sheep are theirs, since they were able to roam free. We were planning on a hike after seeing the Abbey, so we stopped at a convenience store and bought some bread, turkey, cheese, mustard and some chips to make a sandwich for our hike. There was a stone sculpture across the road that appeared to be a Viking in a pretty peculiar position. We thought about putting a roll of toilet paper beside him, but decided against it.

To our surprise, we were able to go into the Kylemore Abbey and view a few of the rooms. It was just as gorgeous inside as it was out. There was also a garden and Gothic Church that we were able to view, but we skipped out on the garden since we were planning to hike in Connemara National Park. As we left Kylemore Abbey, it started to pour down rain, but we continued our drive to the the trail head with the hope that maybe it would let up by the time we got there. As we zig zagged across the beautiful country side, avoiding sheep and trying to soak in the view, we decided to eat our lunch to avoid it from getting soaked if it were to continue to rain on our hike. Jill prepared the sandwiches while Shane drove and as we took our first bites, we quickly discovered that mustard in Ireland is not the same as it is in The States. Shane’s first bite was so strong it sent a tingling sensation all through his nostrils to the top of his head. And Jill was desperately chugging down water to get the taste out of her mouth. The only thing I can think to compare it to, is strong horseradish. At least we had some good chips to munch on.

As we arrived at the trail head, it was still raining hard, so we decided to check out the welcome center. There was an exhibit about bogs and bogwood and a mount of a red stag deer. We couldn’t believe how long the deer’s neck was. Very different than the white tail deer we were used to.

The rain never let up, so we decided against our hike and started our trek back to our B&B. Along the way, we saw a sign that said Aughnamure Castle, this way, so we thought we’d check it out. We were not disappointed. It was a castle from the 1500’s that had been preserved, and it allowed us to get out of the rain while getting a taste of history. From the sounds of it, one of the times that it changed hands, the owner had his head removed and kicked down the street in Galway!

Once we returned to our B&B, we decided we were way too tired for another night out. I guess the time difference and jet lag caught up with us. We grabbed some “take away” burgers from Burgatory and headed back to our room to feast. Shortly after we were sleeping like a rock.