Galway, a wonderful place to spend an anniversary

We originally thought we'd get an early start on the day, planning on getting down to breakfast when the restaurant opened at 7am.  Waking to the 6:15am alarm, we both decided that vacation is meant to be enjoyed, and rushing down to breakfast to try to keep some arbitrary schedule wasn't going to be enjoyable.  Instead, we procrastinated, stalled, and generally took our time getting ready this morning.

I finally headed down to breakfast at 8:30am. Lisa was still getting ready. I asked how much longer she thought it would take her so I could be back when she was ready, and I offered to bring her back a croissant or muffin. She said she'd be ready by 9:00. I reminded her I'd have my cell phone if she needed anything. Almost immediately after I left, Lisa discovered that the device on the bathroom wall that appeared to he a hair dryer, didn't act like one (it didn't appear to do anything at all).

She txt me five minutes after I left the room asking me to stop by the front desk to find out if the device is broken and/or if they have a hand held hair dryer that we could use. Half an hour later, she txt me again asking where I stored the plug adapters so she could use her curling iron. At 9:40am, I returned with a croissant feeling quite good about having remembered to bring one back (and not realizing I was 20 minutes late without a hair dryer or response to any of her txts).  While a bit frustrated with me, she was in good spirits and had gotten everything else done other than her hair.  I verified that the device in the bathroom was a broken hair dryer, called the front desk to report the problem, and asked them to send up a hand held. It was probably 15 minutes before it arrived. Then, before plugging in the curling iron, I looked and saw that it lists 120 volt operation, but not 230 volt.  I wasn't certain if it would work properly here in Ireland, or if it would burn out at the higher voltage.  Lisa decided to risk it, and it was fine.

By 10:20 we were finally headed out. We stopped by a statue for some photos as we made our way across Eyre Square, and I realized just as we exited the park I hadn't yet turned on my GPS tracker for those that are enjoying following along at home.

I turned it on, as we stopped for a few more photos, this time with Oscar and Eduard Wilde before a stroll through one of my favorite areas of Galway on our way to Thomas Dillon's (Lisa's favorite jewelry shop in the entire world).

The last time we came through here ( 5 years ago) entertaining buskers worked every corner, the brick street was closed to vehicles, and beyond every doorway a friendly shop owner was chatting with a tourist. The entire area was bathed in the sounds of live Irish music, tap dancing, and laughter.  This part of the city simply felt alive.

On this cool Monday morning at the end of October, there was a single young boy (couldn't have been older than 14) playing a banjo, trucks and boxes in front of many shops, and very few tourists. Lisa commented that perhaps we had been here on a weekend last time, and this is just what it's like on a Monday.  I wondered if perhaps this was the difference between the busy season and off-season.

Lynch's castle "Adorned with gargoyles" was something we had read about on the Internet before this trip, and was the first planned stop of the day.  The gargoyles were underwhelming, and the "castle" is now a bank. We stopped only long enough to snap a few quick pictures.

As we passed a McDonald's wedged between all the small shops in old buildings. I commented on how a photo of that would almost certainly have made it into my father's travel blog when he was here a year ago (I just checked. It appears I was wrong).

Eventually, arrived at Thomas Dillon's and stepped inside.

The shop was tended to today by two sweet older ladies.  They were busy with a customer, but took a moment to welcome us and let us know they'd be with us shortly.  Lisa commented that we had been there 5 years ago, were back for our 25th anniversary, weren't in any hurry, and quickly explained that we had received excellent service the last time we stopped in and had been looking forward to coming back.

We spent an hour chatting with the shopkeepers and the occasional customer that would stop as Lisa searched through the cabinets of jewelry to see if something special would catch her eye.

They asked about our heritage, and seemed quite interested in our stories. At one point, after one of the shopkeepers had stepped out for lunch, it was clear that Lisa had become interested in something in a cabinet. The remaining lady was busy with a customer, but held out a key and said "Here, you can use this to get into that cabinet."  Lisa removed a single item, and I placed it on the counter along with the key.  The surprised customer commented, "You must be very trustworthy", and the shopkeeper quickly responded with, "They are friends of mine." In the end, Lisa was left deciding between three items: two pendants (entwined hearts and a shamrock) and a new ring. The shopkeeper offered what felt like a very generous discount if we'd like to have all three items.  She did a great job of making us feel special, explaining how she appreciated all the praise about the shop we had shared with customers that stopped in. We took her up on her offer, and I'm certain that if we ever come back to Galway, we will stop by that shop again.  I suppose their friendliness may be a part of why they've been successfully selling traditional Claddagh rings since before the American Revolutionary War. She posed for a photo with Lisa before we left.

We made our way to St. Nicholas' Collegiate Church. Sitting on a bench just outside the church to rest for a bit, we could hear children playing in the schoolyard across the street. We had a nice conversation, relaxing in the shadow of the church watching locals and tourists stroll by.

After resting for a bit, we got up to explore the area. The interior of the church was rather bland and modern looking, and the scaffolding made it clear that the 700 year old exterior was being repaired.  Lisa took some photos of exterior features that she found interesting and we wandered through a cemetery filled with large headstones too weatherbeaten to read any longer.

It was quite disappointing to see empty beer and liquor containers littering the grounds.  It seems the grounds around this church must be a popular place to get drunk in the middle of the night? Having spent nearly an hour visiting St. Nicholas' , it was time to move on.

Getting to St. Augustine, our next destination, required crossing the path we'd taken earlier to get to Thomas Dillon's.  Surprisingly, all the trucks were gone, and the streets were filled with tourists and buskers. Apparently our earlier trip down the road wasn't the wrong time of year, or wrong time of week.  It was just the wrong time of day.

St. Augustine was the polar opposite of St.Nicholas'.  The exterior was bland and there was no church land beyond the walls of the church, but the interior was ornate and interesting.

By the time we finished photographing some of the interesting features, hunger was setting in.  We worked our way back to the hotel, dropping our cameras, jackets, and shopping bags off in our room, and then crossed the street to have lunch at An Púcán.

Having finished lunch at 3:30pm, our 6:30pm dinner reservation seemed a bit too early. We stopped by the restaurant on our way back to our room and moved the reservation to 7:30.  We spent the rest of the afternoon napping, organizing our luggage and photos a bit, and enjoying spending some time in the hotel.  When we were shown to our table for dinner we discovered it had been decorated by the staff with balloons and a "Happy 25th Anniversary" banner. We took our time enjoying an amazing meal for two hours, and were surprised at the end with a small dessert on a plate decorated with chocolate.

Lisa knows how much I love live music, and we noticed during lunch that An Púcán advertised "Live music 7 days a week:", so she asked if I'd like to stop in there for a bit.  We should have stopped in earlier, because by this time there was nowhere left to sit.  Neither of us felt like standing, but there was another colorful pub, Murty Rabbit's,  just down the block.

We discovered they also had a musician, and that they had a few open tables.

Excited to spend an hour or two listening to music and enjoying a few Cokes, we grabbed a table.

A few seconds later, it became clear that we had arrived just in time to hear the last half of the last song of the night.  The musician finished his song, and then packed up to leave. We finished our Cokes, and decided to call it a night.

Tomorrow we leave Galway and head to Doolin.  The tracker will hopefully work better as we get out from between the tightly packed tall stone buildings and into the countryside.