Connemara/Galway – Day 6

Fairy Tree. You tie a ribbon with a wish. We saw various
small stuffed animals among the ribbon....no money.

Day 6 – Sunday, September 23:
Connemara (Galway)
Left hotel at 9:00 AM Our Michael is off today...drivers can only work 6 days, one day off...but he followed us...SO Driver day off; replacement was driver only, not a tour director like Michael.  Michael our driver/guide had to follow us in a van and narrate at the stops. Stopped at the fairy tree;

The History of Fairy Faith When the Milesians, that mythical race described by an 11th century scholar in Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of Invasions), came to Ireland they banished the natives to the underground and they became the Sidhe, the fairy folk who live underground and sometimes reside in certain trees or bushes, usually of the hawthorn variety. You don’t want to disturb the fairy folk or you might bring some kind of misfortune on yourself.
Janet Chapman from Illinois, was thoughtful and bought and cut red ribbon for each of us to tie on the tree and make our wish. That was fun!

Our day consists of mostly driving thru lovely areas.
These are some towns we stopped in for coffee and for
"terrrlets" as Michael would say.

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Decorated bridges

Kylemore Abbey—Victorian walled walking gardens; lunch stop—another beautiful day!

Kylemore Abbey has been a Benedictine House since 1920. The Abbey, which was once a romantic castle belonging to a wealthy family, was built in the 19th Century by Mitchell Henry and stands today as a monument to a great gentleman and kindly landlord, who spent most of his fortune on the estate and for the good of the local people. Since its beginning, Kylemore has been a focal point in the west of Ireland.
The community of 14 nuns, who took up residence at Kylemore in 1920, had fled their Abbey in Ypres, Belgium in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I. They brought with them a strong devotion to the Benedictine tradition of prayer and work – Ora et Labora.
Succeeding generations of Benedictine Nuns, for whom Kylemore served as home, left a legacy of love for the place which continues today. The nuns still have a great awareness and sense of stewardship of the estate and its continuance, creating a special heritage as they hold it in trust for future generations.

Peace is the Benedictine motto and at Kylemore Abbey it is a palpable presence. Michael says it's also a school for girls.

We didn't get a chance to have our picture taken together but someone was gracious to offer.

Green house

Lovey walking paths and ponds.

 We had our lunch and shopped. Just a beautiful place to be on a sunny day.
We traveled  Corcomroe Abbey, Ireland

Connemara and Galway regions feature an inspiring combination of lakes bogs and mountains

Galway. Michael described it as an old hippie town.
Galway experiences a year-round mild, moist, temperate and changeable climate, due to the prevailing winds of the North Atlantic Current. The city experiences a lack of temperature extremes, with temperatures below 0 °C (32 °F) and above 30 °C (86 °F) being rare. The city receives an average of 1,156 mm (45.51") of precipitation annually, which is evenly distributed throughout the year. Rain is the most common form of precipitation. Hail, sleet and snow are rare, though will sometimes be experienced during particularly cold winters. Galway is also consistently humid, with humidity normally ranging from 70% to 100%, and this can lead to heavy showers, and even thunderstorms breaking out when drier east winds, originating in the European continent, clash with this humidity, particularly in the late summer. The average January temperature in the city is 5.9 °C (43 °F) and the average July temperature is 15.9 °C (61 °F). This means that Galway, like most of Ireland, is said to have a Maritime Temperate climate (Cfb) according to the Köppen climate classification system.
While extreme weather is rare, the city and county can experience severe windstorms that are the result of vigorous Atlantic depressions that occasionally pass along the north west coast of Ireland. Most of these storms occur between late autumn and early spring. Due to the city's northerly location and its longitude, Galway has long summer days. Daylight at midsummer is before 04:00 and lasts until after 23:00. In midwinter, daylight does not start until 09.00, and is gone by 16:00.

Cliffs of Moher

Arrived at hotel Clayton at Ballybritt, Galway 5:30 PM
Dinner at 6:30 PM, service was very slow.  Most did not eat dessert.
Michael got tickets for an Irish song/dance show at 9:00 PM (Trad on the Prom: Irish music, song and dance—Mairin Fahy & Band; from Riverdance, The Chieftains and Lord of the Dance).  Most of the group went; awesome show--everyone enjoyed it.  Late night—back to hotel at 11:30 PM