| Galway and the Aran Islands |
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| Galway is a bustling college town of 80,000 people. The center of the city feels urban and larger than the population would suggest. |
| We arrived in Galway late in the afternoon, checked into our cozy B & B, the lovely and comfy Petra House, and enjoyed a group dinner at Busker Brownes. |
| Joan and Frank Maher own the Petra House and they are wonderful hosts. The breakfast was incredible with home made yogurt and preserves. We spent more time in our room here than any other location. We probably needed to catch up some on our rest. |
| The Spanish Arch dates to the late 1500's and is the place in the old part of town where Spanish ships unloaded their cargo. The old medieval city looks out on the conjunction of the River Corrib and Galway Bay. |
| We made a day trip to the Aran Islands from Galway the next day. We took the ferry to Inishmore, the largest of the three Aran Islands. The Aran Islands are located in Galway Bay. The islands were rugged with beautiful coastal views, traditional houses, stone fences, and prehistoric stone forts. The largest town (which is not large) is Kilronan where the ferry dropped us. The ferry was a large modern vessel with all of the comforts of home. |
| Jaunting cars, bikes, and guided van tours are available to explore the island. We took the van and our driver was the colorful Thomas O'Brien who has lived on Inishmore all of his life. Some of the group rode bikes and reported that it was a lot of fun. |
| Most of the thatched roof houses we saw were inhabited. The one to the left with the red door is the home of Thomas O'Brien's mother. The houses were neatly white-washed and cheerfuly trimmed with colorful doors and windows. |
| The Seven Churches is a monastic settlement probably built between the 8th and 11th centuries. It has a rich history with a reputation as a place of learning in the dark ages. The cross on the rectangular stone commerates the death of seven students who came from Rome and died, probably of disease, sometime in the 9th century. |
| As we made our way along the trail to Dun Aenghus, we came upon three young buskers and one began to do a little Irish dancing to increase the size of the donation to the hat. It worked. |
| The cliffs around this Iron Age fort drop 300 feet to the sea. The views are striking for miles and miles. |
| Dun Aenghus is an Iron Age fort that may be 2,000 years old. The word dun means fort. The fort has four concentric dry stone walls that go to the cliff's edge. An outer circle of razor-sharp pointed stones form an outer perimeter. Dun Aenghus is another one of those intriguing ancient stone structures, like Stonehenge, that makes a person curious about the unknown. |