Ireland 2021 continued - 2nd day in Galway

One of the lovely things about this trip was our morning time. We had breakfast at 8:00 and were on the bus at 9:00. On some trips, breakfast is really early and departure time each morning is early. A full Irish breakfast was served every day. Mark was brave and ate the blood sausage (black pudding) almost every day. I did taste it and interestingly enough . . .I said it tasted like Thanksgiving. It was the spice mix. I, on the other hand, ate the beans each day for breakfast. I'm not sure I will ever make them at home for breakfast but I ate them while in Ireland. (just in case you don't know . . .a full Irish breakfast includes several kinds of sausage including the black pudding, bacon which is more like our canadian bacon, potatoes, beans, eggs - usually scrambled and fried, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, and various forms of bread (brown with butter!!). I never tried the tomatoes and mushrooms.

After breakfast, we did a walking tour of Galway. Before we departed the US, we had checked weather.com for days so we knew there was a chance of rain every day but on this day . . .it was a total downpour. The weather was truly nasty but we powered on in our new waterproof keens and our rain jackets. Both were worth the money. We saw the other big church in Galway - Church of Ireland St. Nicholas Collegiate Church. We also saw a building where the owner was the original Humane Society person.

I evidently moved when I took this
photo - but the thing I wanted
to remember is "visitors
VERY welcome" - I love
a church that welcomes
others!! Of course, due to covid, we
weren't allowed inside because
we were a group.

I absolutely love a red door
on a church.

such a cool looking pub!

I think this is the building owned by
the Humane Society person 

rushing water through town

I took this picture for my
sister-in-law, Alice. I thought
she would love the flowers
on the bicycle (yes . . .with a
bag of trash alongside :-))

such colorful store fronts

We walked around the picturesque town some more. I would love to go back and stay within walking distance of the shops and see the town on a sunny day.

We boarded our bus and drove to Kylemore Abbey. Oh my goodness . . .it did not disappoint. The abbey was founded for Benedictine nuns who fled Belgium during World War 1. The nuns opened an international boarding school for girls and they also accepted students from the local area. The history goes back to 1868 when it was built as a private home. Construction on the castle began in 1867 and took 100 men and a total of 4 years to complete. There were 33 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms and the workmanship was (and is) amazing. In 1903, the caste was sold to the Duke and Duchess of Manchester but they were forced to sell because of his gambling debts! Seriously! The Abbey is now in a partnership with Notre Dame. The nuns still live there and they prepare the food that is sold in the restaurant. I had another bowl of soup - I think it was red lentil - and brown bread (their brown bread was the best I ate all week). Mark ate their famous applie pie with custard sauce. I'm sure he ate lunch but I have no idea what he ate!

I need to print this photo big enough
for a frame - the foggy mist at the top
and the water in front . . . beautiful!

the famous apple pie -- Mark
said the custard tasted more
like vanilla pudding. We make
"custard" homemade ice cream
and we assumed it would
taste like that but
evidently not. He said
the pie was really good.

Let me introduce you to my pretty brown bread
with Irish butter -- for those of you who know
I'm on WW (weight watchers) . . .
I actually lost weight on the trip.
I assume it is because we didn't
eat between meals and we
walked a lot. I didn't eat
any sweets, either.

another bad selfie -- it was raining so hard!

While at the Abbey we met a young woman from the west coast of the US. She was a student at the school before it closed. When she graduated from the school, she went home for college, etc. and then lived in South Korea for a couple of years but she said that she had "returned home to work at the Abbey."

On the way back to the hotel, we saw these long ropes in the water. It was a mussel farm.

Dinner was back at the hotel and we ate with the bishop (John) and his lovely wife (Elaine) and enjoyed the food and fellowship. Mark tried a new beer and loved it -- Smithwicks Irish Red Ale.

This group of travelers had a devotion on the bus each morning and then Gary led the group as they sang several songs (they even brought printed song sheets). Also, John did a series of short lectures  after dinner (not every night) about John Wesley and the UMC and other folks instrumental in the Methodist church in Ireland. While we were gathered to hear his first lecture, I thought I had lost my phone and it was truly one of those "I'm not in my country and I've lost my phone - oh my gosh" moments. I'm embarrassed to say that I finally thought to "ping it" from my watch and my phone was buried in my tiny purse . . .after several hotel employees and Mark helped me search. Oh well . . .chalk that one up for Lisa can be crazy.

I realize that I'm blogging some weird details but I'm trying to document this so we can remember, too.