Day 5 Galway to Dun Laogharie

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We're getting behind on our blog so need to catch up this morning. Mostly we're writing this so we can remember what we've done on this trip so bear with us if the details are a little boring.

Friday morning, October 8: We were a little lazy this morning. It was overcast and spitting rain. We slept in, ate a late breakfast and then just hung out in our room--repacking after two nights in the same B&B. We finally took off around 11:00 in a light rain. Ed did a great job of navigating us out of Galway and we were on our way to Athenry. This is a medieval city that has retained a lot of it's ruins and charm. We were quite disappointed when we arrived to learn that the castle is only open Mondays through Thursdays due to the off season. How else to assuage our disappointment than to find a local pub. In that department we were not disappointed. We quickly found Iggy's--named after a former owner, Ignatius. The new owner, Evan, and Damian, his employee delighted us with local history and conversation about current affairs of Ireland. A customer, Mike, had biked 12 miles into town that morning. He told us that he bikes the 12 miles to town and back every day with his cat, Tig, in his bag. When we told him about our local RAGBRAI, he said that would be no problem for him. Iggy's has been a pub since as far back as the 1600's by what the current owner can tell. They used to be an agent for the White Star Line--the company that owned the Titanic--and sold one fateful ticket to a local man named Mahon for that doomed cruise to America. The Irish love their sports and everyone is still buzzing about Europe's winning the Ryder Cup with the help of two Northern Ireland pros. We left Iggy's and found the Visitor's Center, located in an old church. We paid for the self-guided tour but because we were the only two people in the center, we were gifted with a somewhat guided tour of the history of the city and of Ireland. I should mention that we entered the church yard through a stone arch into a cemetery, startling three naughty school boys smoking cigarettes. They needed to have a better lookout. After our tour we found Dan's Bar for a delicious lunch. It was a bustling place at 2:30 pm and must have been a local favorite. After lunch it was on to Dublin, or actually Dun Laogherie. The sun had come out and it was a beautiful drive across the country to the east coast. We arrived in the Dublin area at rush hour but Ed did a nice job of getting through it and landing us at our home for the next three nights, The Royal Marine. It's a beautiful old hotel. The lobby was full of children/families when we arrived and you can imagine our concern but we were assured the hotel was just hosting a Mickey Mouse/Disney show that evening so the children would be going home. Whew!! After unloading our bags in our room, we took off for a stroll around Dun Laogherie. It's a beautiful coastal city and our hotel is just 2 blocks from the harbor. It felt good to stretch after being in the car and it was a beautiful, cool evening. We were accosted by a group of adolescent girls coming out of McDonald's screaming, swearing, running and singing. They were making sport of running across the street in front of cars. Somehow that JCO in me tries to come out and I have to remind myself that I'm on vacation, take a deep breath and look at the beautiful starry sky. They eventually got on a bus (poor bus driver) and the street was quiet again. We found Weirs and had a light supper while watching the Ireland-Russia soccer match. Ireland lost 2-3. The bartender told us Ireland has been struggling this year in soccer and he seemed almost happy when Russia scored. Ed asked if he'd bet against Ireland and he slapped his pocket and said 'You bet!'. We actually watched the second half of the match at The Harbor Bar across the street from our hotel. The crowd was quite enthusiastic and it was fun to watch it with them, even though Ireland couldn't pull it off. After a last stop at our hotel bar, where we purchased a Diet Coke for my Saturday morning treat for about $4.00, we called it a night. Ed was determined to learn about Saturday's weather so sat up watching the weather on TV. Good news was that he found a weather station. Bad news-it was in Gaelic.

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