Day 5 - Galway; Castle and Shopping!

Today we decided to get an early start on the day to make up for yesterday. We also had to put shopping and castle viewing into one day, since we are leaving bright and early tomorrow morning. Mike and Cathy graciously allowed us to borrow their car, while they both went to work. After we dropped Cathy off at the university, we headed straight for Aughnanure Castle just outside of Oughterard. We knew there was a good chance it was closed - but we still had to find out for ourselves. And, come on, it's a castle - I'm sure we can still see SOME stuff - right? Well, of course we arrived and it was in fact closed - bummer. However, we were still able to snap some great photos of what was open to the public - see link to the right for photos.

Aughnanure Castle is a well-preserved early sixteenth-century tower house which rises to six stories, and still retains its outer defensive walls. The strongest tower of the O'Flahertys, who were masters of Connemara from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centry, Aughnanure has an eerie array of defensive features, including arrow slits aimed at the main staircase, secret prison chamber and a trap door in the hall above a subterranean river, through which were thrown guests who had outstayed their welcome. (Of course I read about these features from the Ireland guidebook that Cathy and Mike let us borrow.) It was a very strange feeling walking up to something with such a long history. It was silent, except for the sounds of numerous species of birds calling off in the distance - and it was very cold despite the sun being out and despite a lack of wind.

After the castle, we drove through and out past Oughterard. We snapped some last photos, before both of our camera batteries died! It was beautiful countryside and I was able to capture some of it on my camera phone. Unfortunatley, I can't load those to the photo gallery until I'm back in the states and actually back at work where the cord attachment is to retreive them off my phone.

On the drive back into Galway, I fell asleep in the car! But no time to sleep, when there is shopping and eating to be done! We found a cute little restaurant (I didn't catch the name) and ate brunch. Afterwards we shopped for jewelry mostly and both found items for ourselves and picked up some things for others. We were getting tired and needed to head back to pick up Cathy from work. Now, we are getting ready to eat out with Cathy, Mike and possibly another couple they all know from AIMS in Australia (Australia Institute of Marine Science - where Marla worked in 2005). Till later...