A Visit from Mom :)

Mom came to visit! She arrived safely in Galway Monday night (26/10). I had to work on Tuesday, but on Wednesday we rented a car and went on an excursion around Connemara. Props to Mom for being brave and driving on the tiny Irish roads with the crazy Irish drivers! We headed west out of Galway along the coast, stopping at the Spiddal Craft Village, the white coral beaches of Carraroe, through Carna and along the Mace Head peninsula, then another stop in Carna to try and find a ringfort (no luck, I'm afraid). From Carna, we had a *minor* set back when we managed to get a flat tire...woops! It was all very serendipitous, if you can use that term for something going horribly awry. I had literally just noticed a sign for a 24-hour puncture repair service when we hit the hidden rock that flattened our tire (or tyre as they spell it here). On this tiny road in the middle of nowhere, there also just happened to be another car pulled over just meters behind us taking photos. These people just happened to be nice enough to drive mom over to the puncture repair place, where there happened to be someone (not the owner) nearby with a jack that could get the one random off-size nut off of our rim. This nice man also refused to accept any payment for changing our tire and mom and I set off on our merry way after only half an hour's delay. So yes, it could have been much worse, but fortunately it wasn't! We arrived at our hotel shortly after. And this was no ordinary hotel. We had chosen to stay at the Ballynahinch Castle Hotel, which is nestled in the woods beside a river at the base of the Twelve Bens Mountains. It was gorgeous. Mom and I gorged ourselves on a fantastic meal in their pub restaurant (But this was no pub grub, let me assure you! We started with sushi and I had a trio of fish as my main course, which came with a side of the world's most delicious potatoes au gratin.) Here are some selected photos from Day 1:
The coral beaches of Carraroe:
A gorgeous rainbow!:
The windy, narrow roads:
Having our tire changed:A gorgeous sunset:
Thursday morning, after a delicious hotel breakfast, we took a walk through the castle grounds along the lake. You hear so much about Ireland being green that you forget fall happens here as well and the country can be golden and red as well! The leaves on the oaks and alders were just stunning. After our walk, we hit to road again and went to the cute seaside village of Roundstone. The town was adorable, but since Monday had been a bank holiday and because people were celebrating the entire week coming up to Halloween, almost everything in town was closed up. We did get to visit the ceramic studio, though, and we enjoyed a very tasty lunch at the infamous McDowd's Pub. From there, we traversed the Bog Road on our way to Clifden. It was a very narrow road, but relatively straight and with very little traffic, thankfully. There was nothing around us for miles- just fields of grass spotted with small bog lakes, and a few piles of peat thrown in for good measure. Our stop in Clifden was very brief before continuing on through Claddaghduff, Cleggan, and Letterfrack, then making a stop for tea at the Kylemore Abbey. We returned to our hotel via the Lough Inagh Valley of Connemara National Park. Photos from Day 2:
Our walk around the grounds:
Roundstone village:
Driving through Lough Inagh Valley:
On Friday, we checked out of our hotel and made our way back toward Galway. First stop was Joyce's Craft Shop in Recess, where we hid out for some time while it poured rain outside. We said hello to the Connemara Giant, then headed on the town of Oughterard. Near town was the guest house my grandpa used to vacation in with his family when he was a child- the Currarevagh House. Mom and I decided we would try to pay them a visit and after some trouble finding it (since there were no signs) we finally located to entrance only to be told the place was closed to visitors because they were filming a movie! Too bad for us! We continued on to nearby Aughanure Castle, which was closed up for the season so we weren't able to go inside. The rain let up in time for us to pay a visit to Brigit's Garden near Moycullen. We made it back home in the late afternoon and returned the car, only to discover tire damage is the one thing not covered by insurance! Shit! They told us we could take the car to the garage in the morning and pay for the damages ourselves rather than charging us an arm and a leg themselves. Ugh.
Connemara Giant:
The drive to Currarevagh House- gorgeous fall colors!:
Aughanure Castle:
To make a long story short, we picked up the car again in the morning and took it to the garage just up the road. Turns out, the rim had just been bent, causing the tire to deflate, which meant it was intact and we only had to pay 10 euros to have the rim pounding back into shape with a huge hammer. Thank goodness!