The road to Galway

We said goodbye to Dublin this morning, after first having crossed the road from our apartment to the Bite of Life cafe for a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon.  Our host Daragh, had given us directions to a number of restaurants and cafe's, none of which we were successful at finding, so the walk across the road seemed an easier option.  And after having done so we were left wondering why this place had not been top of his list, it was great food, fantastic service and a charming little cafe with loads of interesting people making a start to their day.

The drive from Dublin to Galway is about 230 km on a beautiful highway with a 120 km speed limit, you can get there pretty quick, it is a toll road and we were to have a hairy moment or two approaching the first toll, as the road widens fro 2 lanes to 10 with gates for various vehicle types and payment options.  I decide to take the fast lane which had me go from the left carriageway across 10 lanes to the most outer, only to find the gate did not open as I did not have an Ecard.  This saw us go from one side to the other and back again, until finally running out of road we ended up stopped at the only unmanned gate and not knowing what to do.  It was about this time I saw a gate attendant and commenced backing the car up, to Jo's amazement and horror, as she quickly let me know a semi trailer truck was bearing down on us.  It was then that the gate attendant, quiet agitated flung opened his door and yelled out to stick our card in the fookin slot.

We visited Belvedere House in Mullingar, what a beautiful place, the house is enormous and the grounds lead down to a huge lake, there are also a number of beautiful gardens like the walled garden and a fairy garden, it was amazing.  The place is also well known for what looks like the relics of an old castle, however it is what they call a "sham ruin" the wall was built to block the view to the house from the neighboring property, the neighbors being brothers there so the wal has been named the Jealous Wall, fascinating.

Another place we visited a placed called Clonmacnoise on the Shannon river, where there are the ruins of old churches an ancient grave yard dating back to 549AD, it was founded by St Cliaran. There are two round towers, a cathedral and seven churches, this was a fascinating place and much visited by tourist buses as we were to find out on arrival, dreading the fact we'd have to contend with so many people getting in our photos etc, we did not mind though that as we entered we were mistaken as being part of the tour, thereby avoiding the 6 Euro entrance fee, much to the amusement of the tour guide, whom just rolled her eyes and had a little chuckle as she shook her head at us.  I decided not to take directions from the Navman as we left as I thought it would be quicker way to go, we ended up taking a 5 km drive through some very narrow roads past ancient farmhouses, one f which had a horse sticking its head out to the road, so to appear it was in the house, this provided a few laughs for us.

On arrival to Galway, we had to contemplate if we had done the right thing taking detours and so long o get here, the place is absolutely beautiful, so looking forward to getting out and discover more of it.
We are staying in a lovely B&B and our hosts Pam and Par suggested a few places we might lie for dinner, we opted for a Vietnamese restaurant call Da Trang and had what we know as a steam boat, they call it  a hot pot, it is basically a pot of stock on a cooker at your table and we were provided with fresh vegetables  chicken and prawns, you just add the food as you want it and cook it at the table, it was magnificent.  An interesting part of the night was being served by a Polish gay guy, whom is very femine and such a happy lad, he was very entertaining, made for a good night.

On our way home we stumbled across Murphy's Pub, there was a black dog laying at the entrance so I asked Jo to take a photo of me with the dog at the front door, no sooner had I crossed the road and said hello to the dog than I was surrounded by 3 or 4 young girls, followed by their parents and some friends, they thought it was my dog.  I had a bit of fun with them then told them it was not my dog, but my name was on the pub, with that they decide to come in for a drink, it was very funny pulling the piss out of some Yanks!