The Wild Atlantic Way is a tourist road around the length of western Ireland. Our nest is on the WAW. Speaking of, the charming, quaint, 18th century Gate House sits right on this road, one of the most heavily travelled in Ireland....our bedroom is ON this road. We are talking noisy....and sits on a curve....getting out of the driveway is suicidal!!! Much of the charm has worn off.....We are located in Barna, about 5 miles out of Galway. The parking and the traffic are dreadful. Our hostess offered to drive us in to town. We have decided to drive halfway and walk the rest. Halfway is Salthill.
We are walking The Promenade (The Prom to locals), following the water the whole two miles.
Salthill is a mini Miami, Cape Cod and Atlantic City
These stories are heartbreaking.....
The lighthouse in the distance
The Galway Harbor
Hand painting the fence.....chatting and singing and having fun!
Turns out to be the fence to one of the town's churches....
The bevelled leaded glass doors at the entrance were gorgeous!
We noticed this sign posted in the vestibule as we were leaving.....
Galway, approaching the centre of town
Christopher Columbus visited Galway in 1477. He later wrote that he had seen the remains of a man and a woman that were from China and had arrived in Ireland by sailing west on two logs or a boat made of two logs. This was used in his sale pitch to Ferdinand and Isabella to finance his trip to China by sailing east. We know how that ends. Turns out that the bodies were probably eskimos that were blown off course. Anyway, Genoa sent this plaque as a gift to Galway in 1992.
Kathy still likes the flowers and, apparently, so do the Galwegians.
According to our landlady, Galway is the fasting growing city in Europe -- we wouldn't argue.
We find a street pub table for a beer.
As I get caught people watching and pondering where the hell all the people come from.
I slide an ashtray off the table breaking it. This man is there cleaning up the glass almost before it hit the bricks.
These checkerboards are in honour of the horse races that were taking place in Galway last week.
Rated the #1 restaurant in Galway!
Very small and very busy
And very good. It was so small, we were embarrassed to take any more pictures. Tom had beef and Guiness stew; Kathy had fried Brie salad. Both were very good.....but perhaps not the best on OUR list.
Swans on the River Corrib which flows through Galway. Are the grey ones juveniles?
This weir took the overflow from a canal to the river below.
Protesting is a favourite past-time in Ireland.
An adjustable gate for the canal.
A bridge gate.
Ironic that these two signs were side by side
The Cathedral.....don't know its name....none of the Catholic churches have a name on them, inside or out!!! weird!
I've been saying for years that the "rest of the world gets it" when it comes to gluten. It is very trendy in the U. S. now, but the rest of the world has been paying attention to gluten for many years....special menus, bakeries.....but Communion! That has raised the bar many, many levels! (coeliac is Gaelic for celiac)
Time for just a wee bit of shopping....fun to look but don't buy anything. Pitiful that our $ is worth 0!!! It's not that everything is priced so high; it's just that our buck is soooooo worthless!
From the third floor, took a picture of Tom reading his book with a cappuccino.
Leaving Galway, we note the city's symbol
And Tom gets some sand for our buddy Marian! We walked the two miles back to the car, stopped for a beer.....and crashed!!!
