Blogs from Connemara, County Galway, Ireland, Europe - page 3

Okay, somehow i will try to make this quick.... First of all, I survived my first day of driving in Ireland...Yeah!!! Second of all, this place is so- charming and picturesque...I feel like royalty on vacation at a country cottage. It's a fairytale, and a relaxing night well deserved after white knuckling it all the way from Dublin. I could not have made it without a great co-pilot either. Warren is a great travel partner and compliments my high string when it comes to stressful situations like this. Without the GPS system and Warren telling me to stop veering off into the lefthand ditch...I'd probably still be trying to find my way past all the round abouts. I think there should definitely be a seperate lane for strictly tractors and tour buses....Ugh! Unfortunately, we did not ... read more

Saturday, July 4 -Galway, Connemara National Park. We have been so busy. I’m just catching up with our journal. Saturday morning we spent time relaxing around the breakfast table with our hosts, Liz and Joe. At 10:00, Liz led us into Salt Hill so that Dean could use the pool. It is a lovely facility with 3 pools, a gym, mini-golf, midway rides, etc. While he swam, Liz, Jackie, Jeff, and I strolled the “prom(enade)”-a walkway running the length of the strand at Galway Bay. When you reach the end, it is tradition to kick the rock wall. Next, we all went into Galway for market day- stalls selling produce, fish, cheeses, and crafts lined the streets near the old church. It was fun to wander around through the crowds. Before Liz left us for the ... read more

After yesterday's very challenging Croagh Patrick climb, Emily took Matteo, Adrianna and I on a less-strenuous trek up a smaller mountain with a path to a shrine to St. Patrick overlooking a hidden mountain-top lake at Maum. The wind was ferocious and it was very cold - it was so wild and completely apart from the world. Ringed by mountains with a green valley below us, it was breathtaking - or maybe that was the wind. We sat for a while on some rocks by the lake and just listened to the water lapping at the shore before heading down the mountain path. Emily trekked back to the van to come around the mountain to meet us. As we came into the valley, the rain came down in sheets - we watched it move across the ... read more

Happy Mother’s Day! March 22 is mother’s day in Ireland. Weird - their dates are a little different than ours for certain things. Daylight Savings is also different - they do have it, but they’re a couple of weeks off from us. The time difference from there to here is normally 5hrs, but has been 4hrs for my whole trip because we’re in that couple week period between us springing forward and them. Sunday morning I woke up early (8:00 should be early for anyone!). A quick shower and I was downstairs enjoying the best breakfast of my time in Ireland. It was just the traditional Irish breakfast, but everything was very well done. I then picked my host’s brain about where I should go that day. With my bible in hand, he told me Rick ... read more

Our touring day in the Burren highlighted something that we noticed on our very first day in Ireland: the odd system of road signage. On our first day, we observed Laurie’s favorite sign: Walking on Water. The road signs, though, proved even more intriguing. Other than the fact that many intersections have no signage whatsoever and that many small country roads are not numbered, the signs that are present are wholly inconsistent. No two signs seem to agree on something as basic as the spelling of town names. The town we stayed in while in County Clare was variously spelled as Lahinch and Lehinch on road signs. Similarly, Ballyvaughan is also spelled Ballyvaghan and Carran is spelled Caran. Although Ireland uses the standard European road signage, most road signs also have an English and Gaelic explanation ... read more