Got up very early and hiked downhill 20 minutes from our B&B to the pier, where our ferry left on the dot of 8. Then the bus back to Galway; did a quick tour of the free Galway City Museum, where they have a Galway Hooker (28' wooden sail boat) hanging in the atrium; they were used to fish the local shallow waters and deliver peat to the Aran Islands.
Picked up our rental car, a little black 2008 VW Golf, and managed to get out of the parking garage (1st challenge) then out of Galway with several roundabouts. then we were in the country, where the roads have no shoulders, and sometimes the car brushed the vegetation beside the road but thank heavens not the rock walls. Sally is a good driver, and I'm a bad passenger, alternating between gasping, clutching the seat and hitting my imaginary brake pedal. I was wishing for a blindfold, but had to navigate. In under an hour we were at our destination, Cong, in County Mayo. In 1952 The Quiet Man, with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, was filmed there. See the bottom of this page for a link to some photos of Cong.
Walked to Ashford Castle, which is enormous and on a huge estate; walked around and took photos then went into the opulent lobby for a peek at the inside.
Photo: CC jmenard48
