Galway City Centre

I've had a difficult time getting photos off of my phone camera (and so did Best Buy and Verizon techs...something is most definitely wrong with my USB ports or my Samsung card connection.)  I've finally sent all of my photos to my email and from there, saved them to my pictures folders, a tedious and time-consuming task, given that there is also something glitchy with my global phone connection or Irish WiFi and I've had to email them one at a time to myself.

With this post, I am caught up on my blog and now can post daily events as they happen, not days afterwards.  Because I'm quitting my phone camera and using my digital.

We spent the morning on a double-decker Galway City tour, learning the most fascinating history and tidbits. Afterwards, we lunched at Kings Head Pub, the #1 rated pub in Galway for food, music and fun.  The rest of the day, we meandered through the cobblestoned streets, ducking in and out of shops when rain would briefly burst, and hobbled home exhausted.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Starting off the city tour by Eyre Square, the original and centuries old square in Galway.  Dunnes and Penneys (not JC's) are two stores here that offer designer-copied fashions at 20% of the designer prices.

All set with, as you can see, very few other passengers.  By tour time, only five of us accompanied the tour guide on the top deck.  How fortunate, given that the city was bursting at the seams with Race Week attendees and it is also a bank holiday weekend.

The President of Ireland lives here in Galway....when he isn't in Dublin.

A neighborhood in Galway, overlooking Galway Bay.

Famously photographed row of centuries old houses (reminiscent of San Francisco's Painted Ladies on Nob Hill.)

Water polo has gotten big here.  Lord knows when they play it, as it never gets much above the 70's in the warmest of summer months...and not for long.

Kings Head Pub for lunch.

City centre strolling.

House of Nora Barnacle, James Joyce's wife.

https://suite.io/susan-keeping/32jp215

St. Nicholas Church

More street stuff.

I love all of the street entertainers and artists during European summers!

Dedication at Eyre Square.  The Lynches were one of the ruling tribes of Galway.

Ruling tribes of Galway.

Ruling tribes of Galway.

Sculpture in Eyre Square dedicated to the "hookers" (ships) which were the main industry of Galway for many years.  (And a pro-Palestinian rally, which marched through the streets just minutes before.  Seems Ireland has become more sympathetic to their side these days.  We discussed the manipulation of news reports in our respective countries and agreed that the people rarely know the whole truth.)

Just had to share these two little Irish kids, brother and sister, who had obviously been to the city centre toy shopping.  Red hair and little glasses and the quietest-spoken and most agreeable little dears.  I shudder when I see the difference in Irish children and American children...even the difference in adults...we are so loud compared to the Irish...I have to work on that.