Chapter 2 - Day12 - Sligo to Limerick

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ELVIS IS ALIVE!

But before we get to that today we travelled from Sligo to Limerick for the most part via some smaller (B) roads. If we thought the main road were a bit rough then these ones bounced us all over the place!
From Sligo we headed to a lovely little village called Cong, its claim to fame is that the John Wayne movie The Quiet Man was made there. Obviously it was some time ago (1952 I think) but the shopkeepers were more than happy to let you know! The roads in the small off the main track villages are very narrow and Cong was no exception. Unfortunately the correct way into the village was blocked by a car. With no owner in sight we had to go the wrong way up a one way street to get to the town centre, our driver for the day accomplished this without any serious issues. We had a good look around town and a very nice morning tea at a local cafe. Cong is a really cute town, there is evern a ‘beware of the ducks’ sign!

We then called into the Connemara Marble factory. Connemara Marble is amongst he rarest in the world and is found exclusively in the west of Ireland. Mined from family controlled quarries near Galway Bay it is the source of the world’s only true green marble which is up to 600 million years old. There was a guide on hand who gave us an interesting background and explained the different marble – essentially green, black and rose - that they use. We bought a marble cheeseboard as a reminder of our visit.
The rest of the day gave us a good opportunity to experience day to day life in Ireland. We had a 2 hour stop in Galway, a lovely town and then a night out at Durty Nellys in Limerick – who would have thought Elvis, was alive and performing here!

GALWAY
Has a very large pedestrian precient which was full of life and colour, artists/buskers offered a big variety of entertainment and added to the atmosphere. We found what we thought was a small pub for lunch, however as we walked through the door in opened out into a huge area with multi levels. It still had a great feeling, old stone walls, low ceilings etc. It also had the Chelsea v Stoke game on live, but we were with people and sat facing away from the Big Screen – poor organisation on my part - so only got glimpses of the game (enough to show plenty of good signs for Stoke – especially at the back, and nothing special from Chelsea). For a change the weather was perfect and we enjoyed strolling around the town centre.

LIMERICK
Our final destination for the day Limerick was about 90km from Galway. We had about an hour or so to settle into our Hotel before heading to Durty Nellys Restaurant and Bar 9they have some great names for their Pubs!) about 10kms out of town. The dining area was quit compact and there wasn’t much spare room (fairly typical) but again a really nice atmosphere. The meal was spot on; steak cooked exactly how we liked it. Like a lot of Irish Pubs it was on different levels and a bit of a rabbit warren. There was an Irish Band playing on one level but we fairly quickly we made our way up to the top level where surprise, surprise Elvis was playing. Great show, most people were up dancing and it was a very enjoyable night for all.
Elvis introduced a mate of his who was having (quite a few) drinks at the bar and asked him to sing a song (Kevin Walters/Walker or similar). He sang a normal song – very impressive, and then Elvis asked him to sing some Opera. Now I’m not a big fan of foreign music where they don’t speak English (especially Opera and Rap), but you could have heard a pin drop as this guy belted out a favourite number, he had an amazing voice. Then it was back to Elis and back to the singing and dancing. A fantastic night all round!

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Photos

Elvis is alive!
We had a great night out at Durty Mollys - even had a guest appearance by Elvis

Beware of the Ducks!
looking after our feathered friends in Cong

Getting creative in Galaway
Heaps of street entertainment to keep everyone amused. This guy is sculpturing an dog in sand - incredibly life like

Galway main street
Beautiful and busy

Comments

[Terence]

snow
As I read this it is snowing in wellington, proper snow falling outside the window.

[GrantD]

Snow
Pretty amazing the amount of snow falling, I cant remember it settling to that extent.