Galway and Connemara

Mrs maytrees having decided to visit her friend in Ireland with whom she had been hitching a ride in Connemara as a teenager more than 50  years ago, we set off to Galway near to which Ann and her husband reside.

Shannon Airport is huge but almost empty and we collected our car hire with ease. The motorway to Galway was straightforward enough.

 

We met Ann and her husband Mike at their beautiful house just outside of Galway. Mike made us all a most welcome steak supper. 

 

Ann had hardly changed over the 50 years since   John RIP and I were traveling in an old Ford Anglia and had stopped   to welcome them into the car from the pouring rain. 

 

Having the benefit of our own car, mrs maytrees and I were able to drive to Connemara to revisit the approximate place on the road where we had first met all those years ago. Almost opposite the old youth hostel in Connemara where they had stayed at the time, was an old convent girls' boarding school. The school has closed but the nuns are building a new convent building with the grounds and have opened the  Kylemare Abbey to the public presumably to help raise funds for their new convent.

 

Kylemare Abbey was wonderful both within and without. 

We enjoyed some of the nuns' tea with their delicious home made thin shortbread. Six acres of the Abbey's gardens are created from an old very boggy site within the Abbey's walled garden.

 

Another village we visited at Mike and Ann's suggestion, well mainly Mike's as he recommended a light lunch at one of its old pubs which we enjoyed. The village was on the sea 

Previously we had visited Clifden but there was a local pony show occurring so we did not stop  there but drove away through its market to Kylemore Abbey (above).

 

As no one in Ann's household was usually an early riser, for me an early morning walk down to the Salthill prom by the sea was the norm. The best coffee shop there and so far as I could see only coffee shop, opened at 7am by which time there was a queue  of locals seeking coffee.  After buying a copy of the Irish Times at the one shop also open early,   reading on a bench overlooking the sea became my norm. Mike told me that  the small ocean liners one of which was clearly visible at that time, are deeply unpopular with locals as the  passengers rarely spent much in the town. The liners  apparently  tend to cruise around Ireland for a few days. 

 

Still the beach coffee and newspaper routine was excellent and after the uphill walk 

home, breakfast porridge with Mike was most welcome. The girls tended to rise later.

 

We had a great supper out with Ann and Mike at an inn which was few miles away. 

 

Sadly all good things come to an end and we headed back to Shannon Airport

and home on Thursday evening.