Day in Galway

Today is a full day in Galway. We have choices to make about what we are going to do. The tour company planned a trip to the Aran Islands, but neither of us were sure we wanted to do that. The weather yesterday made us not quite up on the idea of being out on the bay. Brian talked to the lady that is coordinating the tour and he came back talked out of the idea. Another possibility was to rent a car and drive to the Rock of Cashel. It is something I wanted to do. However, the traffic here is really bad. The island has had an explosion of cars as people have moved out of the city centers into the ‘burbs. The country is suffering from massive gridlock at times, and it is every day. Not just the weekdays. The government here is in the process of updating their roadways. I was talking to the bus driver about making the drive and discovered that the government is in the process of renumbering their road and highway system. I have my PDA with a TOMTOM program, but the maps are a few years old. I don’t know if it would be a help or a hindrance. The bus driver told me that may tourist are having problems using the GPS’s because the maps are not up to date.  In the long run we decided to stay in town and explore.

I went on line and found a tour company that did walking tours of the city. The meeting place was right across the street from our hotel, so we thought that would be a great way to see and learn about Galway. But, as is turning out to be par for the course today, there was no tour on Sunday. L  So we just decided to take a walk around town ourselves and look at the interesting buildings.  After we were done, we stopped and got a pizza and took it back to our room to enjoy and relax.  The shops here in Galway do not open until after noon on Sundays. And some are not open at all.  About 2:30 we went out to do some more site seeing and some shopping. I had a really interesting conversation with one of the shop keepers, and found some stuff I had been looking for. Brian found a little street vender selling charms and such and bought a pendant that has his Celtic zodiac sign on it. Something about wolves. He was pretty happy with his find. While Brian was going over the stuff in the booth, I went into the church that was behind the little alleyway the street booths were set up in. It was very serene and had beautiful stained glass windows. When I am in these old churches I like to look at the burial markers inside the church. Both on the walls and on the floor. With burials back into the 1600’s you get a feeling for how old the building is, and can imagine what history is has seen. One of the markers on the wall was for a Jane Eyre. I recognized the name as being from a famous book, but as it is a chick book, I have never read it. I did not know if this was the person that the book was written about, our just a name common to the area. So I took a picture of the marker so I would remember to look it up later.

After relaxing in the room some more it was time to go out for dinner and to the 1^st of the Dubs shows for this trip. This show was to be in a pub/music hall. We were not sure if Brian would be able to get in and stay in as under 18’s are kicked out of pubs at 9:30pm. I had run into Chas and Brendan in the elevator at the hotel and had asked them. Brendan being from Ireland told me not to worry to much about it. He has seen Brian and did not feel like it would be an issue at this venue. We walked all the way down to the end of Quay Street looking at places to eat. I saw some likely Italian resturants, but we had had pizza for lunch so Brian was not to up on that idea. As I said we had walked all the down to the end of the street that had all the pubs and dinning places on it so I asked Brian what sounded good for dinner. He looks at me with a grin and says Quiznos. I smacked him on the back of the head…Quiznos was right beside our hotel back at the other end of the street. It was not a long walk, but the brat knew when we left what he wanted!

After the sandwiches we walked back down to the Quays pub where the show was. (It was back down at the other end of street where we had walked looking for something to eat). The doors to the music hall had not opened yet so we stood around and chatted with some others on the tour and some locals. Soon the doors opened and in we went. The band provided all of us with a laminate card that gives us access to the venues for the shows (other wise we have to pay to get in). Brian gained entry with out any problems. The venue was really cool. It has a stage that is made up of things that where from an old church. The stage had the pipes of an old pipe organ behind it, and looked like the pulpit from an old church. One of the things I liked about the stage was it put Dave (the drummer) of to one side, and Eric Rigler (off to the other side) in full view of the audience. This was neat because usually Dave is set up behind the other guys and you can’t really see him very well. Brian found a great table right in the middle of room dead center of the stage. We sat with a couple named Wally and Francine. They are old hands at this tour and are close with the band. Although after a bit Brian decided that it was too loud and moved to an upstairs balcony to enjoy the show. All in all it was a great evening. Brian is pretty full of himself after passing for an 18 yr old. He has been letting his beard grow and it does make him look older. I told him how to trim it and now he does not look like a wooly beast, he looks like a respectable young man.