Ireland Day 6 - Galway

Day 6 started with a trip to Abundant Life Church in Galway. We had looked up churches online the night before and this one popped off the page. We couldn’t find it in the GPS and really didn’t have a good address but knew it was in a business park. We found some businesses in the general area of the city on the GPS and prayed for the best. When we got to the correct area, we couldn’t find the business park but we did get stopped by a group of police officers doing a random check on car registrations. They gave us directions to the business park and we pulled into the church just in time for the service. The worship was fantastic and the message very timely and relevant for us. We knew it was God who had led us there.

We had the opportunity to talk to the pastor and his wife after the service and they made some recommendations for a great lunch spot, the places we had to check out in the city, and even where to park. The recommended parking deck was for the Jury Inn which was one of the top rated hotels in our guidebook but they were listed well outside of our price range so we never even called them. Am suggested we at least check with reception to see what kind of rate they could give us since we were already there.  Turns out we were offered an awesome rate! We decided we would crash there that evening.  Our room had a great view of the harbor!

We hit the streets of Galway for lunch and shopping. The pastor had recommended his favorite fish and chips place which we found was fantastic. Am was even able to get fried salmon in place of the usual fried cod! We did some shopping and had a lot of fun looking at all of the Claddagh jewelry including a museum with rings dating back over a hundred years. Am had picked up a ring for herself at Bunratty Castle and we picked me up one in Galway. So we now are each wearing Claddagh rings (as if it wasn't hard to get used to wearing one ring - I now have two!). The streets of Galway were full of street musicians which were a lot of fun to watch. One band (pictured below) were fantastic and we picked up a CD.

The first of the “things to see” in Galway was St. Nicholas Church which was Columbus’s last stop before sailing for the new world and has a great tribute to Jane Eyre. The second site was Lynch’s Castle. Lynch was Warden of Galway back in the 1690s.  The castle is famous for an incident in 1693 when Lynch's son killed someone on the docks. A mob marched on the castle demanding justice. To appease the mob, the father hung his son out of the window. This is where the terms “lynch mob” and “lynching” come from. Here are pictures of the church and castle.

After getting settled in at the hotel, we decided to walk to Trad on the Prom, a fantastic show we were going to see this evening. The walk was a couple miles along the coastline and was beautiful. And, honestly, it felt wonderful just to be out getting some exercise. We walked down a causeway that led to a small island with a lighthouse and experienced spectacular views. Here are some pictures from the walk:

Trad on the Prom is a show featuring musicians from Riverdance and Lord of the Dance and some of the top dancers in Ireland. It was absolutely phenomenal. The music was some of the best we have heard and the singers were fantastic – especially a guest singer they had. The dancers were top notch and the venue was small enough that you were really able to see the amazing footwork. This will definitely be one of the highlights of the trip. Day 6 turned out to be one of the best days we have had on the trip thus far!