County Galway, Irland

When Karsten opened the curtains this morning I was blinded by the sunlight. But we are in Ireland. Enjoy it while you can. Our first adventure and I mean adventure was our hiking tour in the Connemera National Park. We started off in a national park with no admission cost whatsoever. Astounding what you can do for free. We went into the visitors center and picked up some tips and a map.
We then set up to take the long route up the Diamond Hill. No hint on what to expect or that it might be difficult. The first part was fine, uphill but easy to manage. Stones and rocks were placed into the ground as steps same as we encountered in Slieve League. In boggy areas wooden planks covered the ground. It started to get steeper. It started to rain.

We pulled on our rain gear and a fearful glance uphill from me was ignored. Beides there was no turning back. We CLIMBED the „stairs“ up in pouring rain and howling wind. Careful with every step as wet stones tend to be slippery. I couldn’t look down, not because I was scared. You just didn’t see anything!

It kept going upwards, Eric leading the way, always with a shout down: “ We made it!“
This happened at least three times until we finally reached the pinnacle.
And we saw: nothing. We joked with some others how important imagination is in Ireland. So we took a break and were rewarded with some clouds disappearing and giving us a fantastic view of the valley, Kylemore Abbey and it’s gardens.

Thankfully the way down was easier. Totally beautiful, the whole hillside covered in heather. In total we were on our feet for 3 hours. We had a light lunch and then drove off to Cong Abbey in Cong.

I had read about the Abbey in the novel The Dark Witch by Nora Roberts. But I had also read about Ashford Castle, so I wanted to see what I had read about. We wandered around the Abbey and then walked through the woods to Ashford. I felt as if I had landed in a fairy tale. The trees looked creepy. We finally left the woods and had a breathtaking view of Ashford Castle. WOW! We decided to take a break on the lawn, next to the forest. A quick nap and we started off again to our car. Only to watch a helicopter land in front of the hotel. We waited to see what or who was in the helicopter. We kept walking towards the Castle where we then were confronted by the concierge that we were trespassing and he would actually have to charge us. We just mentioned that we wanted to head to the town and had gotten lost, so he let us pass. In the heli were 3 young teenage boys. Probably the sons of ……?????

We had decided to have dinner at Rosleague, so we hurried back. Up and down, dips and curves.

Dinner was a dream. We had a 5 course meal. I felt as if I had died and gone to Heaven.

Now it’s time to turn in and call it a day.