Day 8 - Galway, Ireland!

Today's trip was a special one for two reasons... well 3 reasons. One, we went way out of our way to drive to Galway. Two, Galway is where our wedding rings are from. And three, the west of ireland (specifically Galway county and Roscommon county) is where my mother's ancestors are from.

Our plan was to drive to Galway from Kilkenny (about 3 hours), tour around Galway and see Claddagh jewelers, then drive to Dublin from Galway (another 3 hours) and check-in to our hotel.

Let me take a bit of a diversion now and just talk about how much I LOVED driving in Ireland! I had teased Joe mercilessly about him learning to drive a stick-shift while we were in Ireland because I "wasn't going to do all of the driving". Well it was a different story once I was behind the wheel! I had so much fun driving that little car all over tarnation with the winding roads and endless down-shifting for the round-abouts and small townships. Maybe I was born to be a driver... or maybe it's because there is a love of driving in my blood (thanks Dad :D ) ... but put me in a car with some power, a manual transmission, and some curve in the road, and you have one HAPPY GIRL!!! Add to it that driving on the left is the most fun thing and you have a delightfully happy girl!

So back to Galway...

We arrived in Galway and found Claddagh Jewelers. There are a few streets in the old town of Galway that are permanently pedestrian streets and that is where Claddagh Jewelers is located.







After walking around the pedestrian center, we walked around Galway city centre for a little while.

I love this picture that Joe captured:


We left Galway and headed back to Dublin.

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Arriving back in Dublin we were quickly asking, "Where in the world is the Balymum Plaza Hotel"?

This began the Hotel Debacle...