Galway

13.06.2022

We start in Doolin at around 11am and drive north under a grey sky and a cool temperature of 12 degrees Celsius. 

The weather is (once again) a bit creepy. We refuel for the first time after nearly 500km and four days, which we surprisingly have already covered. With a price of 2.16 € per liter, it is not exactly cheap here. 

Shortly before 1pm, we arrive at our hotel in Galway, drop off our luggage, and park the car in the hotel's third and final parking space. With no more than 18 rooms, it is a small boutique hotel. 

We walk across Eyre Square, through High Street, which is a pedestrian zone, and onward to the Latin Quarter in the form of Quay Street. 

Hardly any store with sweaters is safe from us, but we couldn't find anything. After a brief consideration of sheepskin hats with ears or knit jogging pants - oh well, maybe not 😉 

Arriving at the old city wall at Spanish Gate, we are somewhat disappointed. Galway is not beautiful, the pedestrian zone mainly consists of run-down pubs, fast-food restaurants, and many stores that all have the same items. 

Galway has just under 80,000 inhabitants, about half of whom are students. Perhaps this factor contributes to the fact that items are more affordable here, and stores have slim profit margins or rely on tourists for their livelihood. 

Galway is known for its many pubs, where you can hear live music every evening. And the origin of lynch justice is also here. It is named after a mayor of the city who sentenced his son to death for an offense but had to carry out the execution himself due to a lack of an executioner. 

We take a small tea break and walk to the Cathedral, which turns out to be a new building from 1965 and has nothing remarkable to offer except its size, except that it apparently practices a religious community called the Legion of Mary, which, like the Mormons, goes on missions to one of 90 countries for a year to inspire people for their church. There is a ship's bell from the Holland America Line hanging at the exit. I am tempted to disrupt the reverent silence with it... 

We arrive back at the hotel at 6:30pm and settle into our small attic room. Just before 8pm, we look for something to eat. In the pubs, food is only offered until 8 or 9pm due to the live music, so we end up 30m from our hotel in the bistro of another hotel and have a delicious meal there. Finally, a seafood chowder! 

Across the street in the pub '13', six or seven young people are playing improvised and wonderfully typical music.

We end the day with a pint of Smithwicks. Unfortunately, the weather forecast now predicts bad weather for the rest of the week 😥