Hello 🙂
This trip was in June, and with it, I started my summer travels this year.
For a long time, I wanted to visit Connemara, planning to use a car but as I am not confident to drive, I decided instead to book a guided Tour. It was nice as we were not a big group- you never know how many people will be on the tour, sometimes it is a group of 30 or 8, as was this time.
The guide was a local and gave a lot of information about each corner of the way up to Connemara, at one point he started speaking about the EU and Ireland, and a bit of a topic, but a lot of history lessons 🙂
A little bit about Connemara:
Connemara is a National Park that covers some 2,000 hectares of scenic mountains and woodlands in County Galway. It is a great place for a hike in nature and has amazingly picturesque scenery.
We drove through, but it was very rainy and no photos or a short walk 😦
If you want to learn more and see some pictures, here is the official website.
First stop:Ashford Castle
We didn’t go inside as the castle is a luxury Victorian-type hotel. It was built in the 13th century, and in the 19th century, it was purchased from the Guinness family, who added some new buildings and roads around. Later, it was sold again, and this is when it was turned into a hotel as it is today.
On one side of the castle was a souvenir shop and a coffee shop, which was a cute small house:
Next Stop: Cong village
Before we reach the village, our guide told us about a movie that was shot there, and not just telling us that a movies was made there but explained the entire movie hehe.
The movies is The Quiet Man, 1952 Oscar-winning film and they have a statue in the village center and a tour explaining how and where the movie was made.
Photos from around the village:
Cong Augustinian Abbey and Monks Fishing
In the village are the ruins of Augustinian Abbey and Monks Fishing House which are national historical monument.
Cong Abbey is sitting on the site of an earlier monastery that was founded in the 7th century by St. Feichin.
Short walk next to the Abbey sitting on the Cong River is a little stone building, known as the Monks Fishing House. I made photo from the bridge as it was constant busy with people.
Around the abbey there is a short hiking trail, but unfortunately our trip do not include it, but we could stroll the greenery around.
Locals going on a hike.
I don’t know, but all trees with this moss look like a fairy tale tree, and they have this feeling around them 🙂
Next stop:Lough Corrib Vistas– a short photo stop.
Lough Corrib is the second largest lake in Ireland after Lough Neagh.
The lake consists of 356 different islands and the most famous among them is Inchagoil island with its views of the mountains of Connemara.
It will be great spot for kayaking.
Next stop: Galway city
We had an hour in Galway to grab a bite, coffee, and walk around. This was perfect for me, as for a couple of weeks I was planning to go for a day, but something always happened.
It happened that there was a market, which is kind of typical here on the weekends.
It was a busy day in the city:
Galway, a harbor city on Ireland’s west coast, sits where the River Corrib meets the Atlantic Ocean. It is the fourth most populated city in the Republic of Ireland.
It is a lovely city with a lot of events during the summer.
And this is a wrap of the day- lovely day, new place, sunshine with some rain, and nature gazing.
The trip was 7 out of 10 stars, it is well combined for a day trip. If I have a chance, I would go back just to Connemara for a hike or drive around when it is not rainy.
Next is Glasgow, Scotland 🙂
Pettite Two a Pret 
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