Ring of Kerry and Galway (day 1) - Trip Day 6

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Steve here:
Travel day to Galway. The roads are a bit straighter than they were going south, so travel goes much faster. On the way, Ed decides that we will go to a third Waterboys show in Limerick, as long as the drive from Galway to Limerick isn’t prohibitive.

We decide to drive the Ring of Kerry today. This is a 170km (105 mile) tourist trail that travels through some of Ireland’s most beautiful scenery. It turns out to me more of the Sliver of Kerry, as we drive part way in, and backtrack our way out before heading to Galway. It is not that the Ring as beautiful as advertised, but the roads are narrow, the weather is horrible and visibility isn’t exactly 100%.

While on the Ring of Kerry we make two stops. The first stop is at Muckross House, which was built in 1843. The grounds also contain a traditional farm and a gift shop. Oddly enough, only the gift shop is open, so we take pictures of the outside of the building, buy some junk, and head out. One more stop on the side of the road to take in the beautiful landscape, and we are off again.

We stop in Limerick to eat and stretch our legs. We all agree that steak sounds amazing at this point, and Tammy’s MTV book suggests the Texas Steak Out. About American as Outback is Australian, the food is quite good, and we walk away happy. One quirk: The restaurant has a “Mexican Experience” section, and we laugh that the descriptions include phonetic pronunciations for enchiladas (en-chee-la-da) and quesadillas (kay-sa-dia). http://www.texassteakout.com/frame/menuframes2.htm

We find our hotel without any trouble, put our stuff away and head out for the evening. Our first stop is a smallish pub with a 3 piece live band and a bunch of annoying rowdy East-coast Americans in Irish knit sweaters. The band is good, despite playing with a backup singer. The Americans yell out song selections, sing every word to the songs and drop beer glasses…how annoying! Of course, these are only our first drinks of the evening, and had we started drinking hours earlier, we’d probably be equally annoying.

We head to the Quays (more about that later) for a few more drinks and to close the place down, then to Supermacs (imagine McDonald’s with pizza) for some late night snacks, and finally to bed by 2am or so.

Tammy here:
Let's talk about the water in Galway. It's a huge scandal. When we arrived in our hotel three days ago they let us know there is a problem with the water. It's OK to shower or wash our hands but don't brush your teeth or drink it. There's “contamination.” Since I recently finished the book Map of the World that was all about how cholera was spread through London by contaminated well water I was surprised to hear that Galway has not secured their water supply from farm animals. On the way out of town, we passed a homemade sign on the street that said 'It's 2007 and we don't have any water for our children to drink”. Of course, being susceptible to the mere suggestion of a “belly bug” being contracted by the 1000's, I have fallen ill myself. I know it's just Ed's cold finally catching up to me but it's a better story if I have the cholera.

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