Day 6 - Galway

On Saturday we left Limerick and headed north for Galway. We were given an assignment the night before by Calvin, since we were in Limerick, he challenged the group to come up with a few Limericks and recite them on the bus the next day.  We have to give credit to Bob for our Limerick so of course he read it to the bus and did a great job.

"We once knew a man from Ireland.

He told us his name was Calvin.

He drove our bus, he took care of us.

And we are happy to say he is our friend."

Once Bob broke the ice others came forward with Limericks but of course we think ours was the best.

Our first stop was the Galway Cathedral, it is amazing that a structure of this size was built as recent as 1965, however the plans for it originated a few hundred years earlier.

Inside it is much more impressive.

It is on the scale of some of the biggest churches I have ever seen.

After seeing the cathedral we were dropped off in town for about 3 hours on our own.  Galway has a street that is closed to traffic with shops, restaurants and live acts...it is quite a sight.

We even came by a young lady doing Celtic dance for change, we came back about two hours later, she was still at it...amazing. I looked her up, she is Emma O'Sullivan and is an All Irish Celtic Dance champion.

She even has a website. http://www.emmaosullivan.com/dance/index.php

We wandered about the town a bit and even found the 'Spanish Arches' built in the early 1500s.

We did some shopping and then sought out a place for lunch, we checked this place out, but they didn't have draft beer. After this trip..the name of the place fits me pretty well.

We settled on 'Quays', it is pronounced 'key' but looked like a good as place as any.

When we got inside it was huge, at least three pubs and a restaurant. The food was also excellent.

After lunch we boarded the Corrib Princess up the River Corrib and onto Lough Corrib, the Republic of Ireland's largest lake. In Ireland a lough (pronounced 'lock') is a lake.










The cruise was relaxing and entertaining. In addition to the captain pointing out all the historic sites, we were served Irish Coffee and scones as well as live entertainment.

This is just one of the ruins passed along the way.

Having our Irish Coffee.

















The entertainment was also very good. This young lady was in the Galway Girls video (Sung by Ed Sheeran). If you want to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87gWaABqGYs

If you want to see this girl in their audition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwc8pAahTQs

Finally, we were given a lesson in how to make Irish Coffee. Believe it or not there is Irish coffee competition and these guys were winners in 2011 (I think).  I can tell you they make a good Irish Coffee, I had two.

If you want to try it at home, the instructions are posted on the wall. Obviously there is also technique involved or we would not have needed the 10 min demonstration, but we will try it.















After the boat ride we made our way to the hotel for a group dinner an after dinner drink and called it a night.

Sunday we are in Galway for another day before returning to Dublin for our last night in Ireland, it goes by so fast.