We drove across Eire in about 2.5 hours in drizzly weather. It continued as we arrived in Galway but we wanted to get out and walk around the city before we found our cottage out near Oughterard. We had lunch in a the middle of the city, then ambled out to the cottage, disembowled the car of its luggage and then went back to Galway City to have a bit of a tourist look.
We walked around the harbour a little, across the river, around Nuns Island and back to the city.
Looking from the bridge over the river along the lock towards the river mouth. Quite stunning even though it was overcast and damp and so grey.
Next we stopped for a cup of tea at CupnTae. What an experience. We had heard the Irish loved their tea – this left in the dust anything we knew about tea drinkgin from our home country. It’s almost worth returning just for the tea experience alone.
The next thing we discovered was the excavation of the Hall of the Red Earl. This Hall dates from Norman times, and was visible on a map produced in the time of Cromwell (a reproduction of that map was hanging on the wall)
Wandering through the town centre of Galway was interesting with many brightly coloured buildings which truly contrasted with the grey day. Apparently there are four seasons in Ireland, and each one features an umbrella and a heavy raincoat and gumboots. We also stumbled on the Claddagh ring museum. Quite fitting seeing how there was a lovely claddagh ring waiting in Wellington for the 40th wedding anniversary.
It started getting dark around 3:30 and by 4pm it was dark enough to see brightly lit xmas lights on the trees in the town square. So we wandered off to Oughterard to shop at the supermarket, and organise dinner and breakfast. So that brought day 1 to an end.
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