Moate to Galway, Ireland (Tuesday, July 23rd, 2019)

After exploring the Book of Kells and the Long Hall of Trinity College, we jumped back in the coach and headed west toward Galway.  Our first stop was in the town of Moate where we enjoyed a wonderful coffee and scone before continuing on.  This town was the start of our Irish scone addiction that continued throughout our  trip!

The town of Moate was very small, but also very beautiful and quaint.

From Moate we continued west through the Irish countryside, taking in the views from our coach.  The island of Ireland is about the same size as the state of Indiana, so traveling from town to town is quite easy.

When we reached Galway, we enjoyed a quick coach tour of the town to get our bearings, then headed to our hotel for the night.

All of the shopping and pubs in this town are within just a few blocks of each other, so it is quite a congested area.

The River Carrib runs right through the heart of the city.

We took a quick drive by the catholic cathedral, which Steve's mom said she would like to explore more closely tomorrow, so we will have to put that on our list.

We stayed at the Ardilaun Hotel on the outskirts of town.

The rooms were nice and spacious.

We had time before dinner, so we all went for a walk to explore the grounds which were beautifully manicured.

and they had great views of the city.

A walking path took us through the old walls and mature landscape.

And down to a little building that we named the leprechaun house.

After walking the grounds and stretching our legs, we settled in to the hotel pub for our daily Guiness.

We settled in for the night in anticipation of our day in Galway tomorrow.