Let's keep going...it's got to go somewhere!

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Today was supposed to be a visit to the Aran Islands, three islands off the coast of Ireland, just out of Galway Bay, where the people still live much as they did over a hundred years ago. This is also where the Aran sweater originated, the traditional Irish wool sweater with different designs woven into the sweater. Each design has a meaning, and each family had a specific pattern which identified their family. The sweaters were worn by the fishermen and helped identify their bodies if they were lost at sea and washed up onto the beach.

We missed the first ferry and the next ferry only allowed us 3 hours on the island before we had to catch the last ferry back to the mainland, so we decided to drive north and visit The Connemara and the Twelve Bens (Twelve Mountains). With map in hand, we headed north on the only main road on the map, or so we thought! We had heard about a coral beach just up the road, so we decided to check it out. Not much of a beach by our standards...no chance of our own Gulf Coast losing any business...but the scenery was beautiful, nonetheless.

We left the beach, heading toward the mountains on the only road in this direction. It wasn't long before we crossed over a single lane stone bridge. It was at this point we noticed the road signs were no longer written in English. In fact, all signage was completely in Gaelic. Since neither Pam nor I speak or read Gaelic, this posed a bit of a problem; however, this did not deter us and we continued on. We crossed over another single lane stone bridge and the scenery became more primitive. Still this did not deter us and we continued on. After crossing the third single lane stone bridge, we noticed that we were surrounded on all sides by water. The two lane marked road soon became a single lane path that continued to narrow until it ceased to exist. It was at this point I realized that we were no longer on the map. Pam had this epiphany two bridges back. Since the signage was only in Gaelic, I figured there was no sense asking for directions. I decided to retrace my tracks (not difficult, since there were no other roads) until we found the turn we had missed.

Finally, back on track we traveled through Joyce's Country (named for the Irish writer, James Joyce) with lush green pastures and towering mountains. We soon found ourselves in Leenane, and the location of the only fjord in Ireland, Killary Harbour. Leenane is at the head of the fjord and is a small, quaint town with a few shops, restaurants and pubs, of course. We stopped here to have a snack before continuing. A pot of hot tea was just what we needed to warm us up!

After refreshing ourselves, we traveled along the fjord for a while and then up over the mountains until we reached our ultimate destination, Kylemore Abbey. Kylemore was originally built as a private residence. It was later donated to The Church and became an abbey. The abbey has been used as a boarding school for girls since it was donated. I spent quite a while trying to get a good shot of the abbey (the clouds would not cooperate), and Pam walked around the grounds and found out about the history of the abbey.

We left the abbey and continued the loop through The Connemara and got back to Galway about 8:00pm. While looking for a place to eat, we came across an old friary outside Galway (in Claregalway). I stopped to get some photos at sunset, but again the clouds would not cooperate. Stopping to take these shots was not a good idea. By the time I gave up, we could not find a restaurant still serving. Note to self: a hungry wife does not make for a happy life! We finally gave up and returned to the B&B.

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