The weather has really been wonderful for us so far, until today. We drove in rainy, windy weather an hour to take a ferry in rainy, windy weather another hour to arrive on the Aran Island of Inishmore, in rainy, windy weather. Ryan saw dolphins swimming along side of the ferry, but I was too busy sleeping trying to avoid the motion sickness. The original plan was to rent bikes and bike around the small island to the various sites. That was quickly nixed (I am only a fair weather cyclist) for a small 15 person bus tour given by a local named Rory. It turned out to be pretty good. He drove us around to all the sites, stopping along the way to point out of things of interest and answering all our questions about life on the island. During the long stop at Dun Aengus, Rory picked up his maybe 10 year old son and his friend, who joined us on the second half. I asked what his son did during the summer, and it sounded exactly like kids in the US; soccer camp for two weeks, swimming camp for two weeks, music camp for two weeks, etc.

Our ferry

The island is about 15 km tall by 4 km wide and has 14 separate villages. Residents must take the ferries (or the plane) over, so are limited getting to and from the island. The schools are taught in Irish, and some kids from the mainland come to school on the island primarily for that reason. They take a ferry over at the beginning of the week and then stay with families and head home for the weekends. The island also has its own nursing home, but has a shortage of nurses.

Thatched roof houses that used to be popular on the island

Dun Aengus is the main site on Inishmore. It is a prehistoric circle fort sitting on a cliff, dating back to 1100 BC. The fort was updated and added on to multiple times, they think around 500 BC and then multiple times afterwards. There is still a lot of unknowns surrounding the exact timeframe of the construction of the fort.

The walk up to Dun Aengus at the top of the hill

Some perspective of how the fort is situated at the edge of the cliffs

The seal colony is one of the other big attractions on the island. One large seal was lounging on a rock, while another one kept poking his head out of the water to say hi.

After our tour, we had some time to spare and stopped for a light snack and drinks. Ryan’s first Smithwicks of the trip!

Luckily, the ferry ride back was not quite as rough as the one over. We were beat from the day and decided to do a light snack/dinner in the hotel and go to sleep.

P.S.  Well, we made it over half way through the trip, to August 15th, the date of this posting . . . But it wouldn’t be a trip abroad if Ryan didn’t get sick.  Hopefully, it is just a mild cold and passes quickly!  The local pharmacy gave him some stuff to take, and he brought some amazing nasal spray he bought in Norway last year when he got sick.  Keeping fingers crossed.

Another driving day, though a short one, from Clifden to Galway with a few stops in between. First stop was the Roundstone Music Shop, housed within an old Franciscan Monastery and home to one of Ireland’s famous Bodhran makers, Malachy Kearns. Bodhrans are traditional drums, all made by hand in the shop. Malachy runs the shop, and we had the opportunity to talk with him and have him sign our Bodhran. He said that unfortunately, with all the cheap goods from China, they don’t really make enough on the drums any longer to have a sustainable business, but that it is still his passion. He loves to travel and has met a lot of very friendly Americans and would like to retire to the U.S., preferably Laguna Beach if he could afford it. How funny!

We then stopped at Aughnanure Castle, an old Tower House ruins. As we have since learned, Tower Houses were rather common in the 1500s. They were multi-story towers surrounded by one or two walls and then typically some sort of moat or other water (lake, river, stream). The first floor was used to store grain and other food. The upper floors were then used for eating, sleeping, and hosting guests at banquets. Wealthy families that owned animals would bring the animals inside the stone walls at night so they wouldn’t be stolen. The Aughnanure castle had a murder hole, basically a double door, with a grate in the ceiling above the area between the two doors where enemies could be trapped and shot from above. It also had a garderobe, a chute on the side of the castle, used as a toilet. Disgustingly, the people of the time thought that excrement could be used as a disinfectant and would sometimes hang their clothing in the chute to cleanse it of bacteria. Gross!

McDonagh’s fish and chips counter, recommended in both the NY Times 36 Hours in Galway and Lonely Planet was a must for dinner, though Ryan and I opted for the restaurant side with slightly healthier fare, starting with grilled Gigas Galway oysters and a fried fish skewer followed by grilled salmon with mash and veg, as it is called here. Based on the food available and how we have been eating, ie. full Irish breakfasts, lots of pastries and scones, food with cream and cheese, we wondered if Ireland had an obesity problem like the U.S. A quick Google search turned up an article stating that according to the WHO, Ireland was on track to become the most obese country in Europe by 2030. No indication of why, food vs lifestyle, etc, and no comparison to the U.S., which probably still has higher percentages of obesity than Ireland.

Afterward our not quite so bad for us meal, we walked down the main pedestrian thoroughfare of pubs and restaurants, crowded with people and lots of street performers. The crowds were slightly reminiscent of our stay in Beijing, though not quite as crowded and not nearly as chaotic.

Street performers; Music and dancing, a mix of Irish and what sounded like Latin music

Tiny houses on the walk back to the hotel. Can people stand up straight on the second story?

Cool feature discovered on the Golf. The emblem flips up and the back-up camera pops out

Correction posted 8/16/2016: The correct term is ‘garderobe’, not ‘gardenrobe’.

It wouldn’t be a vacation if we didn’t do at least a few hikes. First one up was Diamond Hill in Connemara National Park. It was a relatively short 3.5km hike up to the peak of Diamond Hill, providing great views of Kylemore Abbey, Twelve Bens peaks, and the Atlantic Ocean. Throughout the hike, we encountered many younger kids and older adults, all European, doing what we considered not an incredibly easy hike. Thus, we have come to the conclusion that Americans in general are out of shape compared to Europeans. In a reversal of roles, Ryan hiked faster than Nicole, who is a bit out of shape and maybe carrying a little extra weight :-).

That’s where we are headed – Diamond Hill

Views from the top.

Connemara is home to the Connemara pony, the only breed originating in Ireland. They are all over the area and were taking a nap as we passed them on our hike.

Most of the landscape on Diamond Hill and along the coast has been rocky with low colorful vegetation, reminding us a bit of the Alpine tundra areas of Rocky Mountain National Park

Post hike, we stopped at the Avoca handweavers gift shop and then walked across the road to savour some more Killary mussels, fresh from a trailer next to the fjord.
  

Ryan then navigated the very narrow and windy Sky Road, a scenic single-lane, 2-way road along the coast. At the lookout point, a guy launched his very fancy drone high into the sky. It was crazy windy up there, and he didn’t look too sure was sure it was coming back at one point. However, a few mins later, it did manage to fly back to him. He must have gotten some really cool photos from that flight!  No pictures of the drone unfortunately.