Breakfast was at the hotel and I got to spend some time chatting with Brian, Rose, and Caroline.

We had a 10 AM departure for Connemara. Again stunning scenery. At the farm, we spent time playing with border collie puppies— everyone wanted to smuggle one home— and watching the grown-up border collies doing their job, herding sheep. Some orphaned baby lambs were hanging out with the goats. We didn’t see any of them using the trampoline, but apparently they enjoy it very much.

Lunch time was in Cong. If you are a fan of “The Quiet Man,” you know it was filmed in this area. I’d visited Cong a few years ago, so I spent time getting a quick sandwich, doing a bit of shopping, and walking through the village and forest. Although the wool (a.k.a. yarn) in the shop was beautiful, I restrained myself and didn’t purchase any. I have more yarn at home than I could ever hoped to use up in my lifetime.

For this bus ride, I was closer to the front. The roads were pretty narrow and at one point, our bus had to back up to let through a bus coming from the other direction. The professional drivers actually have quite a good system: they are all familiar with the area, so they know who is the one who is supposed to back up! It is the non-locals who are more challenging.

The rest of the trip back to Galway was uneventful, until we were literally half a block from our hotel. Two buses collided (minor accident) on one side of the square. As our driver was trying to carefully drive around, a parked car took off quickly and hit the back of our bus. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but there was some damage to the bus. We are sorry for the paperwork the driver will need to deal with (and even sorry, or if we jinxed him, we had just applauded his driving acumen.)

 Before dinner, we were treated to a Trad Session at the hotel bar, with House of Hamill and two of their very talented musician friends. It was a lot of fun and it was great to be able to see them up close.

After the music ended, I went to dinner with four of my new friends. I had Wild Atlantic Way fish chowder with brown bread, and it was delicious!

Tonight it’s packing. Tomorrow we are heading to Sligo, Donegal, and two nights at Lough Eske Castle. Although I have enjoyed the trip thus far, I have been to most of these places before. Starting tomorrow, it will be all new (to me!) locations in Ireland.