Cross Country Road Trip - Day 1

Brian and I embarked on a cross country road trip 2 weekends ago.  Across to Galway, and back to Dublin again.  Sounds brutal, but Ireland is only 129 miles wide where we crossed!

To be fair, it used to be a brutal journey, before they built the M6 Motorway, which was completed in late 2009.  Before this 2-lane motorway, with center barricade, was built, the only way to drive across the country was on smaller highways.  I'm not sure what the those highways were like, but if it's anything like the other ones we've been on in Ireland, I can only imagine how long it would take.  Not to mention how stressful of a drive it would be on small winding roads with ridiculously high speed limits.  I've heard it took more than double the time it takes now.  Honestly, I don't ever want to know, the M6 was nice, easy and fast, with a speed limit of 75 mph.  And the scenery, how beautiful.  We really felt like we were in Ireland.

Road shot - somewhere along the M6

Our trip to Galway was planed around an outdoor music festival, Gentlemen of the Road, that Mumford & Son's organized and headlined.

We woke up early, got to Galway in time to explore the town, before heading to the show.  We really lucked out with the weather.  The entire weekend was beautiful.  Don't be silly, by beautiful, I don't mean hot - this is Ireland.  It was just sunny, with moments of enough warmth to be in jeans and a t-shirt.

Galway was just the cutest little town.  The main street was lined with musician street performers and "chuggers" (= Charity Muggers = the people who collect money on the street for charity).  The street musicians were really, really good.  There was a pianist who was rocking, a lady who I thought was lip-syncing to Celine Dion, but was actually singing, to name a few.

The Pianist

It was Saturday and there was an amazing farmers market in town.  We just can't find anything like it in Dublin - if anyone is reading this and knows of a good market in Dublin, let me know.

Main drag in Galway

Cute little buildings

After checking out the town, we headed to our B&B.  There are heaps of B&B's in Galway, and Ireland, and after searching and searching for a place with an open room, that would accommodate a 1-night stay, I found the High Tide B&B.  A cute little B&B run by Pat & Pat, with a delicious and big breakfast in the morning.  No email confirmation, no confirmation code, just a phone call to reserve a room.  I admit, I was a little nervous, as it isn't that common not to have some proof of reservation.  But when we showed up, one of the Pat's warmly welcomed us and had our Galway Bay view room all ready for us.  It's refreshing to do business like that (when it all works out).

View from our window at High Tide B&B

Walking toward the show along the bay

Even the water is green in Ireland

The show was great, and the crowd was into it.  There was a wall of people, making it impossible to get anywhere near the front.  After one attempt to get close, we retreated to the tiny little hill we spent the afternoon on where we had a view of the stage.  The Irish love to get up on their friends shoulders, girls and guys.  We thought it was pretty funny how many guys we saw on shoulders.

After 2 days of torrential downpour, we were pretty happy to have the sun

Mumford & Sons

The show ended at 10:45 and it was still a little light out - crazy, right?  We're pretty far North in Ireland, which is great now, in the Summer.....we'll talk about Winter, in Winter.  We walked through the town of Salthill after the show, and on a whim, hit up the arcade.  I was overly impressed with Brian's basketball skills, we made it 3 rounds and won a handful of tickets off €1!  We walked out of the arcade spending €2 and with a commemorative Ireland Mug, but that story is for another time.

Photo taken after the show with no flash!  It's almost 11pm.

Next up - Cross Country Road Trip - Day 2