Friday, October 14, 2016

Connemara

No one should take a trip to Galway without visiting Connemara. We had a long schedule, but the rain changed our plans, and we didn't do half of what we were planning to.

No trip to Connemara would be complete without Connemara ponies on the horizon.

 The first of our three stops was at a coral beach.
 Instead of sand, the "sand" was tiny pieces of coral and sea shells.

So cool!


Jellyfish littered the beach.

 Unfortunately, the cold and the rain cut our visit short, and we climbed into the bus just before a downpour.

Since we drove in the bus for two hours, most of Connemara was seen out of rain splattered windows which don't allow for very good pictures. When the rain stopped long enough for the wind to clear the windows, I got a few pictures.
 Our second stop consisted of pulling off to the side of the road. Brian told us about this stream/waterfall with water purified by the peat bogs. It tasted wonderful.


 Once again, rain drove us back into the bus, and the rest of the drive looked like the picture below.

We were passing through the north of Connemara when we came to the Twelve Bens (or twelve mountains). They are lovely when it is clear, but believe it or not, but this picture is taken facing the Twelve Bens. That is was they looked like for us.
There are mountains there?
 Our final stop was Kylemore Abbey. It is a stunning 18th-century abbey. We didn't enter it, but the outside was fantastic.
 The rain made waterfalls, tumbling down the slopes of the mountain.
 This was the best view of the mountains we had all day.


Then it was the long, long rainy ride back to Galway. If it would have been clear, we would have done a lot more like go to another beach, played rugby, and taken the scenic sky road.
Despite the weather, I'm glad we still got to explore Connemara the little bit that we did. It is one of my favorite parts of the country.

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