I followed my dad's American Airline's flight a couple hours later after a delay in San Francisco and found him quietly reading, sitting across from the Hertz counter at Dublin's airport. It was strange to find him in a foreign place like this, but I was happy that he had arrived safely and was ready for Irish Travel.
A roll of the rental car dice landed us an Outlander. I said I would handle the driving and proceed to the left side of the car after we had stored our luggage in the back. Ehhh...wrong answer. That was the passenger side and it was time for me to learn how to drive on the left side of the road (and shift with my left hand). It only took me a few stalled starts and stops before we were on the on the Irish roads and battling with the Friday afternoon traffic.
Despite being a little disoriented (I found myself banging my right elbow into the door, looking for the stick shift at times), sleep deprived and dealing with a lot of constuction, travel to Galway, our first destination, was pretty smooth. We were impressed with the highway and never encountered any sheep crossings. The landscape reminded us somewhat of Wisconsin, being very green and rich with farm land. The fall colors have also come to Ireland, which is a pretty sight.
Arriving in Galway, after some unintentional loops around the down town, we found our hotel, Garvey's Inn and Bar, and checked in. The room was very tiny, feeling like you had to back out the same way you went in, but it had a nice view of Eyre Square, Galway's little "central park". We also found that they Garvey didn't invest a lot in heat, but we had some nice blankets on our beds.
Our first move in Galway was to find dinner. That brought us to nearby McSwiggin's (great name for a bar) bar and restaurant, where we had some nice chicken dinners and I was able to pull in my first Guinness in its native habitat. The black beauty went down nicely.
Afterwards we took a walk around the town to get our bearings. We walked over the Salmon Weir bridge, which had a torrid current flowing underneath it. This led us to St. Nicholas's Cathedral, a gorgeous church with a green dome. Afterwards we navigated along the intricate canal system that Galway has, giving it the name "Venice of Ireland". While these canals are not used for navigation like in Venice, I could see the comparison.
The next day, after 14 hours of badly needed sleep, we took a nice long walk along the Galway bay. They have some nice paths put in place that runners, bikers and roller bladers take much advantage of. We also saw some rugby (or it could also be Irish football) being played. Rain was very intermittent with the sunshine, which we have had much more than we imagined we would. The weather has been superb thus far.
Galway has a nice labyrinth of streets filled with shops, restaurants and street musicians that we strolled through afterwards. We made a stop at the King's Head (a building given to a man named "Gunning" for volunteering to chop off the head of King Charles I for Oliver Cromwell) for another Guinness. We saw many people there to watch soccer, whic reminded me of football saturday's at some of our American sports bars. After that pint, we stopped at McDonagh's for a tastey fish and chips.
We then made a stop at the Spanish Arch a place where Spanish ships would bring their wares. This probably where we saw the most tourists as I saw a few people snapping pictures as I was doing.
As I write this we will be heading out of Galway to nearby Salthill, which is where we'll be staying at a bed and breakfast for a couple of nights. Our plan is to find some golf, then do some sight seeing the next couple of days, which we hope will include the Cliffs of Moher and The Burren/County Clare.
Thus far, the trip has been a lot of fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment