Galway March 30

These are pictures of the lovely park across from the Salthill Hotel.  No time to walk through though. We're off to Connemara National Park and Kylemore Abbey where the choir will present their second concert.

Love the flowers 

Beautiful little fountain

Have to come back someday and walk the paths

We're quickly in the countryside outside Galway.

Still overcast, cold, and rainy

All the rain makes small streams into water falls.

The land is very boggy and rocky

Jim's middle name is Keane.  His mother's side of the family was from a town called Maam Cross. Sure enough, as we drove through the town of Maam Cross we saw three buildings, all named Keanes something or other.  Our guide teased that Jim owned the whole town.  Later in Killarney, Jon bought a watch at Keanes Jewelers.  We'll have to do more research when we come back.

We saw lots and lots and lots of sheep and lambs on the hillside.  The Irish government monitors the number of sheep allowed on acreage.   In the past, too many sheep completely ate all the grass causing erosion.  

 In the distance, in the rain you can see the huge castle of Kylemore which was built by English business man Mitchell Henry as a wedding gift for his wife.  The 13,000 acre grounds include this lake, lovely paths, an extensive garden and a mini cathedral.  This would have been exceptionally picturesque reflecting in the lake IF if wasn't pouring rain.  

 This cathedral called Kylemore Abbey, was built to honor Margaret Henry who died in 1874.

 The Glenbard Choir sang beautifully.  What a wonderful experience to be able to sing in such a rare and historic building.

Unfortunately, we only made it to the abbey.  We opted out of the castle and gardens in favor of finding a warm dry spot.  It was raining heavily and we had to walk about a mile to get to the abbey. We headed back to the gift shop to dry out and get HOT coffee.  I had a wonderful quiche and Jim tried more seafood chowder for lunch.  Both were yummy.  Jim also found his shellelagh, Irish walking stick.

 Then it was a drippy ride back to Galway.