Back on the mainland...

After another Irish breakfast, we had a few hours before our ferry, so I decided to take a short (ish) hike up to the Black Fort (the fort is the structure on top of the cliff- not much of it remains standing). I knew little about the trail, or for that matter the fort itself.  Trail looked short on the map. but went to the other side of the island, so I was hoping for nice views, I was not disappointed.

 It was in fact only about 2 miles and not very steep, and about 1/2 of it was a dirt road (or rather, a limestone road...  a lot of small rocks....  I was glad to have my thick soles hiking shoes on). But the other half was not a trail at all, but at walk on this limestone outcropping, without any markings. 
The day was clear (if grey), which is good, because I was all alone up there and while it is hard to get lost (you can see the ocean on both sides), it would be very easy to just walk off the face of the very high cliff s that just appear suddenly.  Again, I was amazed, considering the number of people who visit, that there are not more accidents.  It was really cool to have this entire wild place to myself, and wonder about the people who built all these walls, the fort (and again just puzzle about what they were defending against....).

There are a few cairns and more elaborate memorials up there, commemorating more recent events, like this one, for a young man who was lost at sea in 1976 (apparently, a relative of Joe’s driver’s from yesterday - same last name).
It is very haunting.
I  managed to not fall off the cliff and not break an ankle climbing over the walls (which you have to do since there is no path).

On the way down, I found the only herd of sheep on the island.  There are a few more now than a month ago, as many tiny lambs were among them (note that these are different from the sheep in Connemara, who all have black faces and legs).

On the way to the ferry, we admired the seabirds(heron),

and enjoyed watching people practice hurling (the national sport) on the beach.  It looks hard! (Note that one of them is holding a beer, making it even harder).

 The ferry ride gave us a good opportunity to get a different look at Inis Mor, and then we drove to Galway.

 

Galway is small (only about 80,000 inhabitants), but very lively.  It’s center is pedestrian, making for a nice stroll along the little stores and coffee shops, and a good place for street performers. 

 We took one of the cititour  buses, because it’s a nice way to get a quick view, as well as learn about history.  Well, not that much about history (you can just google that), but more about the way the people who live here feel about history.  So we learned that the people of Galway are still mad at the Brits in general and Cromwell in particular.  That they have still vivid memories of the potato famine and how it changed their country, that the fact that all of them have relatives in the US (because of said famine) make them feel a very strong bond with the US. This is a picture of the memorial to those who died during the famine, on Galway bay.  They they REALLY like John Kennedy, but may like Bill Clinton even more, because of the role he played in bringing peace with Northern Ireland (which I had either forgotten, or maybe never knew about).

The bay is beautiful.  This is a picture of people walking their dog - they are all bundled up because it's chilly.  But there were still quite a few people actually doing laps in the bay!  (Our guide said that there are people doing that every day of the year....)

We drove by the weir bridge, were the salmon season is just starting.  This guy did not seem to have much luck.....

By that time, we were just famished (it was 4pm and even though the full Irish breakfast is filling, that was was a long time ago), so we stopped at one of the many little shops on the Shop Street and had some delicious Irish cheeses).

Walking back to the hotel, I stopped at the old St Nicholas church (from the 8th  century) and the more recent cathedral, built in the 1960's mostly with donations from the Boston diocese (as I said, they have strong ties!).
(this is the cathedral)

The walk back along the  river was lovely and provided opportunities to admire the many swans (Ireland has 1/5 of all swans in Europe) and other pretty water birds.

We lucked out and managed to get seats at the bar of a very trendy restaurant near our hotel, called Ard Bia (means High Food in Celtic).  It is part of the structure around the famous Spanish arch (the Spaniards had a huge trade with Ireland in the 16th century and built most of the harbor).

Galway has a big food scene, and I have to say that the food was truly exceptional:  It included sea weed butter and sea weed pesto,

and also beet ice cream with a rhubarb fool, but somehow managed to not be fussy, just delicious.
Note the time:  It's very unusual for Joe and I to start eating at 8pm.....

 but Galway really comes to life at night!  The main pedestrian street is crowded with locals and tourists, and street performers - it's actually really pleasant.
We almost went to a bar to listen to Irish music, but they would not start for another hour, so we enjoyed a couple of the street musicians (after all, that's where Ed Sheeran got his start, so maybe we saw the next big star), and retired to our hotel, just down one block (that's perfect, really near the action, but very quiet....).
Off to county Clare tomorrow.