September 7 – Galway and Inishmore On The Aran Islands

Full Irish breakfast for me and French toast for Ann this morning. We sat in a glass-enclosed porch at our B&B. We were served by the 8 year old grandson of the owner. He had on a rugby shirt with the colors of the home team. They had a big match late in the afternoon.

Ann and I decided to split up and do different things today. I wanted to go to Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands. She looked at the weather and decided to stay in Galway to take a guided walking tour. I walked down to the ticket office, bought my ticket, walked a couple of blocks to a bus stop and caught the double decked bus run by the Aran Island Ferries. The bus was packed. I was lucky to get a seat on the top deck so I could see the marine views on the way out to the pier. The ride took about 45 minutes.

I boarded the bout along with about 200 other people. The trip took about an hour.

When we landed in Kilronan, the closest thing to a town on the island. I got into a mini bus for a tour of the island. There are four ways to tour the island. You can walk, but you would need a few days to do the circuit. You can ride a bicycle, but ou might have to contend with strong winds and heavy rain. You can ride in a horse cart, but you are open to the elements. The last and safest way to tour is in one of the several mini buses. It was very cold today with strong gusty winds and lots of rain showers.

The first part of the tour took us over to Dun Aenghus which is the largest of the pre-historic forts in Ireland. We were dropped off there and given two hours to tour the fort and to eat lunch. To get to the fort, you have to pay a small fee and then hike up a hill. The hike is gradual at first, but the grade kicks up at the end. The steep part has lots of rocks and they were slippery. It had started to rain in earnest on my way up. I got soaked along with about ten other hardy souls. Because of the weather, I didn’t spend much time at the fort and I certainly didn’t approach the edge which is on a sheer cliff with several hundred feet of nothing below except the ocean.

At the bottom, I went into the local cafe. I was told that everything was cooked on the premises and was good. I ordered there hardy vegetable which came with brown bread. As I was waiting, they brought out a heaping plate of freshly baked scones. I couldn’t resist. Then I saw assortment of cakes and had to have a piece of butterscotch cake. This was a very good lunch.

Our driver picked us up on time and we toured the rest of the island. I got on the 4 o’clock boat and hopped onto the bus for the ride back to town. I met Ann at the hotel a little past 6:00.

We walked down to the pedestrian mall for dinner. We peeked into a couple of pubs on the way to see if we could combine food with music. No luck. The pubs didn’t serve food. We ended up at Martine's Restaurant for another good Irish meal. Ann had a salad with goat cheese and risotto. I had deep-fried sardines and smoked BBQ ribs. We were happy. Here are photos of the first half of the meal. I was too focused on the second half to take any pictures.