Sheep, churches, and castles

Today has been a wonderful follow up to the not so great day we had yesterday. The hotel we stayed in was very nice. We had a pleasant breakfast and then walked to city centre of Galway. We bought a few souvenirs and of course I took a bunch of pictures of the buildings, trees, and anything else that caught my eye. We were surprised to find shops open on Sunday, but I guess we should have remembered we aren't in the Bible Belt. If there's one thing we've discovered about Europe, it is they'll be open to make a tourist buck any time they can. It was a neat area where we walked on the cobble stone streets and milled through a market area.

Speaking of breakfast, here they are all the same. They consist of eggs, bacon (which is more like our country ham), sausage, and toast. Every once in a while, someone will have hashbrowns or potatoes. Many places also have baked beans, sautéed tomatoes, and mushrooms. I've actually been living on the carnivore side and have been eating the bacon each day. So far it hasn't made me sick or anything. It is all good, but we'd like a pancake or waffle thrown in on occasion to change it up. I guess we'll have to wait until we get back home for that.

We finished up our city slicking and headed for the country. Today we went to Ashford Castle first. It is actually a hotel that you can't go into the actual castle unless you're staying there, but you can walk the ground and gardens. It's another castle that's huge, but was done in sections. We couldn't quite figure out how many additions or which side was the oldest. They did a good job of blending things in.

They also had a falconry and while they don't have a presentation, they do have private walks with the birds. We saw a couple out with one and a handler. I got a lot of pictures and we enjoyed the show at their expense - $180 euros for an hour. Ridiculous!! We took more pictures of the castle and off we went.

The next bit was sight seeing in Connemara park. It's a lot of mountains, sheep fields, and country beauty. Again I took a lot of pictures and again they don't do the scenery justice. I've had Tony stop and gets scooby snacks so we can skip lunch each day while we're driving through the beauty. We stopped along the way for out snack and looked through the binoculars at the sheep far up on the mountains.

Our last stop was Kylemore Abbey. We didn't go in because we've reached the point where we've seen so many we can't ooh and ahh any more. It's all just so beautiful. And everything we do here is a fee, so I took my amazing pictures and hopped back in the car.

We took the southerly route back around the lake that we circled today in the direction of  Galway. On both the way there and back, we passed through many little villages. Every one had a beautiful church that I wanted a picture of. Again, we got to the point where one is no more or less beautiful than the other. I've learned to just not say anything so Tony doesn't try to find a place to pull over for a photo op.

We went about our way in search of the night's accommodations. We've had great luck so far and it seems that every place we stumble upon is the exact place we were meant to be. I'm a firm believer in that there are no coincidences in life, so I do my best to find the sunny side. Yesterday stretched my limits a bit, however.

The place we decided upon tonight is right by the coast. We saw the B&B sign and started down the road. It was a narrow curvy road that didn't look like it was going to fare well for us. We drove and drove and passed some less than stellar places. The sign kept urging us forward. The very last house on the very last road was the place. And it is a cute little seaside house with a rather interesting hostess. She kept us laughing while we checked in. She even made dinner reservations for us. Breakfast should be entertaining.

Tomorrow is more park and coast exploring. We have been very fortunate that the things we've planned to see are all beautiful and worth the sometimes long trip. We've decided to just forget about yesterday's events (or lack thereof). It sure proved to help us appreciate the beauty we saw today more than we may have without the bump in the road.