Steve and Katey in Ireland 2026

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...

Just a quick addendum to yesterday’s post: we had tickets Saturday night to one of the headliners  Damien Dempsey . It wasn’t the kind of music we were into that night and found a place just up the street, called The Crane Bar, specializing in trad(itional) Irish music. The tiny upstairs room was packed, but Katey is nothing but teeth and elbows when she wants something bad enough and we were soon seated right near the musicians. Fast forward to …. Raise your hand if you were up until 2AM after a little snacky-snack at a chippy (little stand that sells fries). 🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♂️ After a “lie in” due to our late night, we handed back to Monroe’s for an absolutely fantastic concert with two traditional Irish musicians, Padraig Jack and Seán Keane. Nerdy side note: we saw on the weather that there is a blight warning. Steve looked it up, and if you know anything about Irish history, the Great Famine from 1845-1852 was caused by this same blight, a mold that grows on pot...

We started the day at Pascal’s Pancakes … two inch-plus tall pancakes topped with crispy bacon and a fried egg. 😋 Around lunchtime, we made our way back to Monroe’s Tavern and scored a perfect table from which to watch the afternoon of free live music.  Unlike yesterday when it rained basically all day, today is just cloudy and a little chilly (58°F) with a few peeks of the sun. It feels nice walking without getting soaked! Katey’s random thought of the day: our food always comes out quickly and is piping hot. It’s so much better than just warm-ish like we often get at home. After four bands, we decided to take a breather back at the hotel. After a nice “quiet,” we went to another venue where our favorite group from the afternoon, Roving Crows , was performing again. They were delayed because the championship hurling match was on, and the teams battling it out were Galway and Dublin. Galway came out on top, to the delight of the crowd. Fo...

Céad míle fáilte! It's a classic Irish greeting that literally means "a hundred thousand welcomes." 🇮🇪☘️ After a terrific night’s sleep, we headed out to explore Galway. In the course of a couple of hours, we saw a cute little outdoor market, Eyre (pronounced “air”) Square, cute Shop Street, Latin Quarter, and a little arts & crafts market next to the Spanish Arch. A quick but ferocious downpour sent us back to our hotel. Being right on the Atlantic coast, Galway’s weather rotates between sunny, chilly, windy, and rainy. Thankfully, we both wore raincoats. Not thankfully, we both wore jeans. Soaking wet jeans are … not fun. A couple of random but kind of interesting notes… - Katey’s optometrist wants her to use a prescription eye drop, but insurance won’t cover it. We went to an opticians office to ask them to fix her glasses and discovered the exact eyedrop is OTC here in Ireland and is literally a tenth of what it costs in America. (The sho...

Here we are at our hotel in Galway! Steve’s had his inaugural pint of Guinness, and Katey has had both a cheese toastie and fish ‘n chips (of course with mushy peas).  Our Ireland refreshment tour is obviously off to a great start. Wish we could say the same for our travels from O’Hare to Dublin. 😦. We made it safe and mostly sound, and without going into oppressive detail, here are some questions we either heard or had over the past 24 hours: Wait. Did that gate agent say there’s a guy under the plane with a flashlight?? Can a 787 run out of gas idling while waiting for permission to take off?  What’s the medical emergency requiring us to taxi back to the gate?? Why are they inviting anyone who wants to to deplane?? Have you ever eaten a full dinner at 2 am?? $7.07 per gallon for gas?? Once we arrived in Dublin, we got a shuttle to a train that brought us 2.5 hours west to Galway, and our hotel on the Atlantic was just a five-minute walk from the train. We’re fed...

  We're returning to Ireland! We made a trip out there in 2016 ( here's our blog from then ) and had an itch to return. This time, we're going to spend the majority of our time in Galway, which we missed on our previous trip, and catch the Galway Folk Festival . Thanks for following along. We hope you enjoy reading about our adventures!