It was still raining when we woke up Thursday morning, but by the time we’d finished breakfast and walked out the door, the skies had cleared up and it was a bright and sunny day.
Wishing to save some of our walking energy, we decided to invest in an overpriced “orientation tour” of the town. From the open-air upper level of a vintage double-decker bus, we got to see the parts of Galway we were glad we didn’t waste time walking to. After taking a quick lap around the central square, the bus left the center of the city for the top of a nearby hill, where we got to take hazy pictures obscured by power lines.
On the way up, our guide – who sounded bored with his job – pointed out all of the suburban housing projects. At the waterfront, we were told of the hundreds of acres of the bay that were filled in for still more cookie-cutter houses.
And we got to see construction in progress on a sewage treatment plant on an island where a historic lighthouse once stood. The people who wanted to save the lighthouse had gone to court and lost. After spending an hour listening to Galway’s depressing history of construction and demolition and reconstruction, we were reminded of our own city’s similar history. Galway may be 500 years old, but most of its historic buildings were torn down 400 years ago.
We took a long walk around town to see the more interesting stuff that the bus totally missed. We walked along the canals that branch off the river that runs through town and into Galway Bay. We got a nice daytime look at the pedestrianized central city.
And of course we sniffed around the obscure alleyways in search of good deals on food and coffee. Galway is a college town, so that adds to its youthful vigor and attracts a steady flow of young visitors from all over Europe.
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- On the High Street in Galway, we saw some very young buskers.
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- We were taken aback at seeing such heavily armed guards around armored cars, but the locals did not find it at all unusual.
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- A painter keeps the colors fresh on the Galway High Street.
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- Rachel was playing cello on High Street in Galway, and we later had drinks with her and her companion.
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- We were told that the Galway Cathedral was built to look “old”… in 1968.
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- Sometimes it’s the small details that make a place special, such as this utility cover.
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- Obbie lines up a shot along the canals in Galway.
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- Houses along the canals in Galway.
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- Some of the canals run under the houses… or the houses are built over the canals.
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- Workers collect empty kegs stacked in front of a pub in Galway.
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- A view up the River Corrib in Galway.
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- Galway’s High Street.
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- Abbeygate Street runs across central Galway.
After our walking tour of the city we took a tea break and did some trip management. We called to make reservations on the Sunday ferry from Rosslare Harbour to Cherbourg, France. Then went out to bus station to check on bus schedules for tomorrow’s trip to Tralee and Sunday’s trip on to Rosslare Harbour. At the supermarket, we got makings for sandwiches for tomorrow’s bus ride.
Once we were rested and prepared for the coming days, we went to a cyber-cafe and struck up a conversation with a gent named Paddy, accompanied by his companion Rachel. Rachel had received a few coins from us earlier in the day while she was playing cello on High Street.
Paddy was one of the first people we’d met who not only knew where Wisconsin is, but he also knows where La Crosse is. Several years ago he took a bike tour from Chicago to Minneapolis, and had passed through our area. Later on that evening, we huddled around pints and swapped stories of being besieged by raccoons while camping in Wisconsin.