April 28 – Dunguaire Castle and the Drive to Galway

It is still lousy weather but we are back on the road again.  We are doing more coastline with the route taking us through an area called The Burren.  The landscape is very different here than most of what we have seen so far.  The rocks are pretty bare and scoured of any vegetation.  Probably from the last glaciers that went through here several thousand years ago.  

Of course, it wasn't all barren rock.  There was beautiful coastline and quaint villages.

On our way to Galway we stopped at a little craft market in the town of Burren.  There was nice artwork, a lot of hand woven items (one woman was even spinning her own yarn from wool – wonder where she got wool from?  LOL.)

We admired some photography and talked with the young photographer.  One of his beautiful pictures was of a nearby castle.  It was on our route so we stopped at Dunguaire Castle.  It was restored and used as a home during the middle of the last century so it was in good condition. 

One floor was set up for a Medieval Banquet.  They apparently have them routinely at the castle.  Too bad we didn't have reservations.

There were good views from the top of the tower.

We are staying 4 nights in Galway at the Jurys Inn, right in the heart of Galway.  This evening we wandered down the nearby main happening place where there were lots of pubs, restaurants, souvenir shops, and street artists.

We stopped to chat with a young man who was playing the Irish pipes.  Unlike the Scottish pipes you don’t blow into them.  Instead, they are operated by bellow type bags that you pump with your elbows.  Pretty ingenious.

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Video of Irish pipes.
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We did some mini-sightseeing with a stop at the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas.  

Then it was dinner (we found a rather good Indian Restaurant) and back to the hotel.