Galway day

Another early morning after another early morning. 6:30 saw me awake and ready for anything. Rather than disturbing JJ, I abluted and headed for the promenade again. The weather was much improved. Blue sky, sunshine, only a few evil, black clouds. It augured well. Until I returned to the B&B, by which time, the clouds had spawned enough progeny to completely blot out the sun and anything even remotely blue.

Another perfect breakfast prepared by the wonderful Sean and then we hit the streets of Galway. JJ wanted to buy a new claddagh ring at the world famous claddagh ring shop at the bottom of Quay Street so she bashed at the door until the woman opened up the shop.

We had to push our way through the hordes of German tourists who were only interested in reading the wall beside the door. I’m not sure why the tour guide thought it was reasonable to block the door and why it was so difficult for them to move a person width to let us in.

After looking at and trying on almost the entire stock of silver rings, we started on our way up Quay Street. Being early-ish meant that the normally pedestrianised street was packed with all manner of delivery and removal trucks. It was also extremely smelly. Particularly the garbage trucks. Just as the smells reached danger levels, I spotted Druid Lane.

Back in the 13th century, about halfway down Druid Lane (which was probably not called anything back then) Richard de Burgo, aka the Red Earl, built a large hall in order to impress the neighbours. It was expected of the de Burgo family since they were pretty high in the pecking order.

Then the 14 tribes took over. I know that sounds like something out of Battlestar Galactica but it’s actually real. They were a group of merchant families in Galway who controlled everything from the mid 13th to the 19th centuries.

It seems that they had no need of Richard’s magnificent hall so it gradually fell into ruin and just disappeared.

Fast forward to 1997 and a plan to expand the customs house is thwarted when the foundations of the hall are unearthed. All work stops and the archaeologists are brought in. As they beavered away with trowels and paint brushes, the customs house expansion plans are quickly redrawn. The building was erected on stilts that left the archaeology open and accessible to all.

I’ve included JJ (in the red) for scale

We had a jolly good wander around (well, jolly for me…JJ may have been a bit bored) before heading off to Boots in order to exchange a cream which was the wrong colour. This didn’t take very long and we were soon up in Eyre Square, admiring the strange knitted sails containing 3,796,520 stitches. At least we think it looks like sails.

Yarn bombing, Galway style

The weather had been grey but dry up to this point so we decided to walk over to the cathedral. This proved a rather optimistic choice. The rain started light but by the time we crossed the bridge and started towards the front doors, the rain was horizontal and extremely wet.

We stood in the entrance and watched the view gradually vanish behind a wall of falling water. There was a service inside so, unlike the Americans who figured they could just barge in and have a look, we waited in the dry and relative warmth.

Galway cathedral is quite new. It stands on the site of a jail which was demolished in 1941. Interestingly, the jail was built on the other side of the river from the court house. Quite handy, you’d think, for transferring the guilty to their cells quickly and efficiently. The jail was built in 1810. The bridge that crosses the mighty Corrib River and which joins the two, was built in 1818. I’m assuming they rowed them across.

Anyway, after a while the Catholic church decided they wanted a cathedral in Galway and took up a collection. The site of the old jail was perfect (the bridge having been built by then – I’m not going to make the obvious joke about walking on water) and in 1965 it finally opened for business.

The bell is called John, by the way.

Eventually the mass ended and we had a stroll around inside. They have a lovely set of stained glass windows running down all the walls, including two rose windows. I was quite keen on the depiction of Adam and Eve.

A rather gory depiction

There was also one of Cain and Abel with an awful lot of blood and guts. It was designed and created by James Scanlan and, apparently, when the sun shines it floods the cathedral in red light. This was not something we were likely to see.

The rain, however, did stop long enough for us to walk back into town for a coffee in JJ’s favourite health food cafe.

A couple of lattes later, we were in the purpose built Galway museum. It’s a lovely predominantly glass building with three floors of galleries. Unfortunately they were installing some new exhibits so the top two floors were closed to the public. Still, we enjoyed what we could. I rather liked the Galway Hooker hanging from the ceiling.

A boat built for display

We had a lovely lunch in the museum cafe (The Kitchen) before heading back to the B&B for a granny nap. Luckily we were both asleep when the torrential rain started, battering at the windows, drenching less lucky tourists. And by the time we left for dinner, the clouds had gone, leaving only gale force winds.

Dinner was pizza and chianti in Salthill followed by a full moon lit walk back along the promenade, trying to avoid being blown into the sea. The surreal image of the Titanic fully lit up was the icing on the cake of a lovely day.

Windswept on the promenade