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| Sugarloaf Mountain viewed from lounge in the Ritz |
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| The girls behind the main estate |
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| PowersCourt Estates main building |
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| Proof of being there |
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| The old Ryan's home in Galway... left 1/2 of the white house |
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| The Queen in the Ritz-Carlton |
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| Large pond and water feature on the grounds of PowersCourt |
Tuesday, 10/11/2011 - Day 5 PowersCourt Estate to Galway
For the 1st time this trip, got my way too comfortable rear up early, ~0600, jumped into some gym clothes and went down to the exercise room on the 1st floor. Absolutely every type of training you could ask for and then some, including sparring, and no one around at all! I had the run of the place and decided on recumbent bike training for 30mins of sweat. Felt good. As I'd done in Beijing's Ritz-Carlton, I borrowed a nice workout towel and inadvertently forgot to leave it back. :-) OK, TMI...
Got back to the room and the girls were up and milling about. We discussed our plan of the day as I was continuing to cool down. Today would be our longest leg, mileage-wise, by a lot. Galway was ~145miles away. The good news in these modern times? Nearly all of it would be via fast moving motorways. With that in mind and the weather looking not too bad, we also decided to checkout PowersCourt Estate - opened at 0930 - if the weather held. Rose and Rosie headed down to breakfast while I quickly showered, dressed and, joined them. Very nice spread, as I expected, in the Ritz for breakfast, buffet style.
By the time we'd packed, checked out of the hotel and, loaded up the car it was just after 0930. Entrance to the Estate was just a 2min ride away. Dropped the girls off at the entrance, parked the car and walked over to join them. It was misting ever so slightly but nothing bad.
PowersCourt Estate is a beautiful, sprawling property with a Castle-like structure, which you start off in, centered on the property with gardens, lakes, sculptures and walking paths in the back while a world class golf course faces the front. We had enough time to take lots of photos while walking down the 93 steps to the edge of the lake. All along the way there are things to see, touch and marvel at. I will not do this tour justice in this short blog. If you ever get the chance to visit, I highly recommend you do and take a couple of days, not just 1. Anyway, we took the path leading to the left in order to visit the Japanese garden area, also fascinating, before climbing back out of that depression in the property just off the lake and continuing the loop around the lake and re-climbing the 93 steps back up to the estate. We all felt quite in need of a stimulating beverage and extremely relieved that the weather had cooperated enough for us to have at least seen some of the property. Went into the estate's restaurant, ordered 2 lattes and a pot of tea, sat down to share our impressions of the property - all positive - then made our way back to the car for our long ride to Galway.
Departed PowersCourt at ~1115 for Galway. The route would be initially local roads until we rejoined the M11 north before jumping on the loop around Dublin, the N50, eventually merging on to the N4 for about 1/2 the trip before branching off on to the N6 for the remainder of the trip. Wasn't long after we got on the N4 when it started raining... a steady, heavy rain which stayed with us all the way to Galway! Basically, the worse weather day we'd had since landing in Ireland.
The N6 dumps you off just outside of Galway City, about 3miles from where Rose lived and our hotel, the Carlton (not the Ritz :-( ). Our local, Rose, didn't recognize anything, may have been the rain but I think so much has changed and/or built up, until we turned onto her road, Dublin Road. We pulled into the hotel parking lot at around 1415 - still raining.
You know how sometimes in your mind's eye, you already have a preconceived notion of what someone or something will look like? Well, I was off by a mile. All the Google Earth maps, paper map study, photo reviews of Mom's childhood home and the hotel we were going to stay in did not fit my expectations. Not sure if it was due to the rain or the fact that I was concentrating very hard to negotiate the heavy, congested traffic during this peculiar time of day or something else. Just wasn't what I expected to see at all. Felt off and a bit dirty. Didn't say this out loud to Mom... she'll get to read it later. I had a bit of a foreboding that this city, Galway, would be my least favorite of the trip. But then, I really hadn't given the city much of a chance and the rain made things a bit miserable.
The hotel was kinda nice. Certainly not Ritz-Carlton but not bad. Both Rosie and I got a chuckle when we got up to the room and Rose finally realized and appreciated that the Carlton in Galway was in fact not the digs we had at the Ritz! Back in the day, this hotel had been called the Ryan Hotel and was THE place to stay. Based on our remaining trip goals, thought it'd be a good idea to book another night in the hotel for Friday, 10/14, to base out of when we visited the Burren area and the cliffs of Moher. So we did and for the same rate as this day.
Mrs. Bridie Leahy, who's late husband had been a mayor of Galway, still lived in the right half other home. When they eventually returned to our room, Rosie told me that not only was Mrs. Leahy there, but also her daughter, Mary and her son Darragh. Mary was a childhood friend and playmate of Rosies during her formative years when the Mongan's used to visit Ireland and family more routinely. They had a nice visit before heading up the street to Duggan's, a favored shop on the corner, for some supplies. Both Roses were not happy with the changes at Duggan's. The quaint little corner store had evolved into a shop with no personality or character... just bigger. They left to return to the hotel a bit sadder.
OK, don't give up on the city yet.... We got back into the car with our umbrellas and rain slickers and headed back out into the rush. Still very busy roads full of cars. Headed into the city center and eventually found a parking garage a bit off the beaten path off Merchant Road in a not so nice area of the city - or so it felt that way to me. Let me reiterate that the constant rain really put a damper on all of our moods.
Meandered our way to a shopping area that felt familiar to Rose and found a department store, Dunne's, to buy Rosie an umbrella - she forgot hers at the hotel. An escalator or two later, we exited the upper level of Dunne's into a pedestrian strolling area lined with all kinds of shops but few restaurants. Ran into a souvenir shop near Dunnes and found a place to pick up some souvenirs and gifts for family/friends back home.
Exited the shop feeling a bit peckish and turned to Rose to help us find a good place to have dinner. We walked into what appeared to be the center of town where both Rose and Rosie recognized a familiar yet not so familiar eatery called the 'Skef', the truncated new name for an old favorite: the Skeffington Arms. We decided to check it out. There were 2 gents sitting outside under an awning that was dripping rain enjoying a smoke and Guinness. Through the doors and into the restaurant. The first thing you notice is how dark everything is due to the wood paneling. This is followed by the realization that no one is approaching you to offer help or anything else! Rosie had to go literally grab a waitress and ask about procedure. We were told we could sit anywhere we want but, had to order at the bar? Strange. Most of the patrons in the bar were young, Galway is in fact a collegiate town, and staring... not sure why or at what? Could have been at my garishly handsome looks, the Irish hat I had on or, the bright orange sailing slicker I wore. Regardless, we didn't like what had become with the 'Skef' and left.
Things had changed so much that anyplace that was once a good place to eat had completely changed. Rose's next suggestion was to go to the Great Southern Hotel for a bite. Most good places to eat I'm told could be found in the larger hotels so, off we went towards what Mom thought was the Great Southern. It wasn't anymore. The name on the hotel was now 'Merick' and we went inside. There was a sign for an Oyster Bar but, few to no people in it at this hour ~1830. We went back outside and down steps to an adjacent bar/restaurant named 'Fagan's'. Brightly lit, no people but the bartender and 2 waiters. We sat down anywhere and looked at the spartan menu. Nothing on it was appealing to Rose so, we decided to order drinks - water for the girls and a Harp for me. When the waiter came over, I asked for a Harp. He immediately got a bit snippy and declared that they didn't sell that beer on this side of the country!? It was more of a Dublin beer... his attitude and delivery kinda chapped my rear end. Even so, I did order and enjoy a Guinness before we left without ordering anything. We asked him where we could go to find some restaurants to eat, not having visited in years, and described where we had been to him. He was incredulous and told us that where we had just come from there were over 30 restaurants basically in a row to chose from. We were all highly dubious of this but said no more and left. The guys working the bar couldn't have cared less about us, customers. Sad.
Retraced our steps and more and found little more than a McDonald's and a small Italian restaurant. We decided we'd had enough and headed back to our car. Along the way we passed head shops, a XXX shop, and a tall, tattooed, very drunk local spouting things we didn't understand. There was also the smell of smoke in the air along one of the streets we'd walked along... the type of smoke one usually sniffs at a rock concert. We hurried along and made it to the car park, jumped in and drove back to the hotel. Was about 1930.
Turns out the restaurant in the Carlton was excellent - thank God! I had steak, Rosie had Cod and Rose had salmon. Rosie and I split a 1/2 carafe of red wine. A couple of desserts later we were back up in the room calling it a night and discussing our next day to Achill Island before hitting the rack.
Not the best day we've had by any stretch of the imagination. Quite frankly I was tired, soggy and very disappointed with my first visit to Galway. I hope it's better when we come back in a couple of days.
Until then, Slan.
Fuji
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