Galway, Ireland

Started the day driving to Chonamara National Park from Galway. It was the usual drive on a two lane highway with all sorts of perils and tribulations but we made it.

There are THREE hiking trails at the park, Yellow (30m easy), Blue (1 hr, moderate), Red (2+ hrs, hard). We opted for the blue while Dutch went Blue.

The views were spectacular and I’m told they are even nicer from higher up but it was raining and we didn’t bring hiking shoes or poles to trek up higher so we headed back down.

There are amazing flowers growing all along the path up and down the park. Well worth a minute to stop and smell & photograph the flowers.

After spending a couple of hours at the park we headed to our next stop Kylemore Abbey.

Kylemore Abbey

Kylemore Abbey has paramount and majestic views of the surrounding mountains and lake.

We visited the interior and weren’t disappointed with the furnishing. The Abbey has a strong odor of wood and a bit smokey and musty.

There is also a gothic church under renovation to the far right of the Abbey.

The gothic church is fairly small and not as impressive as other churches we’ve visited over the years.

The view between the Abbey and church is amazing.

The garden has amazing and giant flowers growing throughout. We didn’t have time to make the botanical garden but you can still find these throughout the Abbey area.

After the Abbey visit we headed back to Galway to spend time in the city and do some shopping.

Galway

Our Dingle entrepreneur told us we had to stop and visit The Quay Pub in Galway so here we are.

Sadly service was very slow and the staff seemed overworked and indifferent. They literally drive people up the walls here.

After lunch we visited Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop and picked up some local Irish books and then headed to the cheese shop for some amazing smoked sheep cheese!

After the city visit we headed back to our hotel for some rest. We move on tomorrow.