Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Sea to Shining Sea...

           

After our delightful Dublin dinner at Dax (note how the clever author uses alliteration), we got up the next morning for the cross country trip from Dublin to Galway.   From the Irish Sea to the Atlantic Ocean in one day.  So the bags were piled in the lobby

And we boarded our coach



Singing “Piltown Coaches sing this song….” Well, maybe not, but it was mentioned as a way to remember and find the coach when in a coach park with fifty other ones. Once all souls on board, we bid adieu to the lovely Brooks Hotel (still a bit confused about those breakfasts)

 
Our first stop was about half way along at the small town of Aughrim.   It was also the site of an(other) important battle between the Jacobites and the Williamites in the late 17th Century.  There was a visitor center and lots of those typical  “battle” kind of signs with multi colored arrows and such



Without going into the history, the outcome was another loss for the Jacobites, kind of precipitated when the commander of their forces (French General Marquis de St. Ruth) was unexpectedly killed by a stray cannon ball.  At the time, they had the upper hand, but this incident precipitated the crumbling of their forces leading to a Williamite win and thousands of losses for the unfortunate Jacobites.   As you travel around Ireland you can hardly be anywhere which has not been the scene of some battle or another.  Usually with tremendous loss of life.

But our visit (a few centuries later) was much more pleasant, because it included..... LUNCH!



Which was served sort of family style to our intrepid travelers in a little pub called “Valerie’s of Aughrim”



Lunch consisted of a selection of sandwiches and a bowl of the common soup we saw all over




Both of which were tasty, no froo froo stuff here, just typical good solid Irish luncheon fare.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t or didn’t avail myself of the fare at the other end of the room!



As we were leaving, a wedding party arrived, complete with their own videographer.  



Note the “C’mon Galway” sign over the door supporting the Galway rugby team.  It was a very common practice we observed all over Ireland, they fly their team’s flag everywhere.  Pubs, lawns, garages, you name it..  Satisfied with the lunch, we boarded the coach and hit the road again.

Our next stop was in the small town of Cong



It is on the map because in 1952 the filming of “The Quiet Man” with John Wayne was done here .  There are little shops with souvenirs and stuff for the film buffs.  Not me.  I sought out something else in a little bakery/coffee shop



And enjoyed a nice cup of coffee with the still warm scones.  We strolled about the town a bit while others shopped.  There is a ruin of an Abbey there, but MFO and I had seen that on a visit in 2012 so we just enjoyed the local charm



Back on the coach once again, and made our way finally to Galway.  Galway was on the itinerary on purpose so we could attend the International Seafood Festival, featuring the World Championship Oyster Opening contest (the Irish do not use the term “shucking” for semi-obvious reasons)..  Before going into town and the Festival for the (Friday) evening festivities,we stopped in at Moran’s Oyster Cottage on the Weir for dinner.   Really alert readers might remember that Michael Moran was here for our St. Mary’s County Oyster Festival, and the Oyster Cottage is the family restaurant.

Dad and son were both there to greet us with their delightful Irish hospitality




Inside, Duke Landry, the USA champion from the St. Mary’s Festival there for the “worlds”,  joined Michael for some lighthearted demonstrations of “opening” an oyster 



Right before dinner, Ed Cole the trip host joined Willy for some reminiscing.



And then we tucked into dinner, started with of course the star of the weekend


After more of those along with more of the beverage of choice we went into town, and some of us attended the Irish National Championship Opening contest, which Michael competed in



What a great day, capped off with some real action



due to traveling and such, I’m not sure we were exactly

DFD

But were DFF(un!)





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