Day 36 Sunday 26 June 2016

We are greeted by rain as we wake then enjoy a superb breakfast, the best so far in Ireland. We depart Sligo in rain, so our drive this morning has the views of the countryside obscured. One thing that we do notice is that the gardens are very well cared for, with most houses having a flourishing colourful front garden & lawns neatly mowed. Our first stop this morning is at Cong, a very small town with a ruined Abbey & a nice salmon stream running through it. We notice that the first house we see is built on a very small island & one end of the house is built over the stream on a small stone bridge. A little further on there are men fishing for Atlantic salmon in the stream & as we watch one fisherman catches a very nice large Atlantic salmon. We walk around the Abbey looking through the ruins then during a walk through the gardens on the stream we find a small cottage that the monks in the Abbey built to make catching salmon that much easier, built over the water, with a small fireplace to keep warm. The rest of the small town is full of quaint little stone cottages built on narrow streets. Cong’s other claim to fame is being the location of a film called “The Quite Man” starring John Wayne & Maureen O’Hara with a bronze statue commemorating the occasion.

The rain is still with us on our drive further south to Galway. We stop next to the St Nicholas Cathedral, relatively new being completed in 1965, then walk inside to find that Sunday Mass is about to start. We have a short quite walk around for a look then leave just as quietly. It does have an impressive set of organ pipes & accompanying stained glass windows.

We then walk past the River Corrib, more fishermen trying their luck for Atlantic salmon just below the weir in the fast-flowing water, then into the main part of Galway. The shopping precinct is closed off to traffic, there are lots of people out walking, braving the light rain. There are some young people in summer clothes, the temperature is supposed to have been 16C, I don’t think it reached that with the rain & wind. We stop & admire Lynch Castle, a 3 story stone building that is now a bank, before walking through a small local market then down to the river again. We spot a very large seagull (much larger than ours in Australia) dragging a fish larger than it out of the water, it will be set for a week with that much fish. The roads are blocked a bit further on with runners in a triathlon event running across the Wolfe Tone Bridge over the Corrib River & also through the Spanish Arches, ruins of dock buildings from 1584. We sit & have our lunch looking over the river, the rain has stopped, before having a look through the local town museum, highlighting some of the history of the area from 8,000 years of settlement. We walk slowly uphill along a busy Shop Street (appropriately named) & reach Eyre Square before returning to the Cathedral & our waiting coach.

On our drive to our next destination of Limerick we pass a number of ruined castles & towers then spot Bunratty Castle in good condition, just outside of Limerick. After we check into our hotel we get ready for our dinner destination, Knappogue Castle. This castle is about 45 minutes drive from Limerick, past Bunratty Castle & Six Mile Bridge. We drive through narrow country lanes, sometimes the hedges close right in on the road & taller than the bus, like driving through a green tunnel. Knappogue Castle is an imposing tower house built in 1467 & expanded in the mid 19^th century. We are greeted at the castle door by people in medieval clothes & led into the ancient Dalcassian Room where we are served mead. There are two women playing a harp & violin, later they are joined by some women singing some medieval songs. As guests are led into the Banquet Hall Tereza & I are kept aside with another 3 couples (4 bus loads of tourists dined there tonight) & then dressed in robes, we are to be King & Queen at the banquet. After everyone is seated we are presented as the King & Queen of Ulster & led to the front of the hall where we are seated at a table on an elevated platform, we even have padded chairs with backs, the little perks the royals get (not like the plebs who sat on hard wooden benches) overlooking all the royal subjects (guests). We are treated like royalty. We have a very nice 4 course meal, starting with some of the freshest salmon I have tasted in a long time. We also have chicken, the 4^th night in a row for me (it is his own fault), this one is very tender & tasty. After the meal we are treated to a musical dancing & singing performance by the men & women that served our meals. They were dressed in period costume & were superb, the young man dancing the Irish jig was exceptional, the young lady playing the harp was also exceptional & the voices of the ladies singing was superb. Another very good day & enjoyable night, it finished all too soon.