Day Five: A Wee Change of Pace

Steve was up bright and early to go pick up a rental car for the day. His muscle memory from driving around Ireland 10 years ago is intact and he did a great job driving us to Kylemore Abbey. The picture above was taken on his phone!

The story behind the Abbey is full of romance, intrigue, greed, and tragedy, and today it still functions as home to a group of Benedictine nuns whose mantra is “Ora et Labora” (pray and work).  It was also a school for girls until 2018 when it had to close due to low enrollment.

On the grounds, we visited with some horses, a pig named Ken, and various sheep that wander at will. Katey tried to get Ken’s attention, but he just pooped in reply.

Once we’d explored all there was to see, we hopped back in the car for the trip back to Galway. Unlike on our trip up, there were no sheep casually walking in the road this time, but Steve still had to bare-knuckle roads that would barely pass for one lane in America but are two lanes here.

We made it back to Galway in time for rush-hour and the traffic rivaled Chicago, taking Steve 30 minutes to go about 3 miles back to Enterprise Car Hire.

For dinner, we took another recommendation from Steve's friend Lisa and checked out Front Door Pub (Kevin, text Steve for a photo of our Shepard's Pie and Irish Beef Stew). From there, we hit up another Lisa recommendation to listen to live music at The Quays. 

Finally, we stopped off at The Skeff Bar for some more live music. It's off the main "Shop Street" so a much more relaxed energy, and was great. 

It's time for bed. We have to get up "early" (7:30) to catch the ferry to the Aran Islands!