Today we made the drive from Donegal to Galway. One of longer drives of the trip. 3 hours if driven straight through, but we are not ones to drive straight through. As we were driving along about to enter County Leitrim we noticed a mountain and had to stop for photos.
While we were pulled over on the side of the road we met a nice German couple who were visiting Ireland and spent some time swapping travel stories before moving on.
As we drove on we saw a sign for Glencar Waterfall and decided to have a look. We ended up going several kilometers down a very narrow, winding road that was quite harrowing at points when encountering a car or van going the opposite direction. But it was well worth the effort as the waterfall is quite beautiful and gave me the opportunity to do some long exposure shots using the ND filter I have recently acquired.
We spent a few hours on this little detour and then proceeded to Galway.
Arrival in Galway was a bit jarring. We were so accustomed to the rural experience that the big city was a bit unnerving, especially having to drive and find the hotel.
We did locate the hotel, but parking was not immediately obvious so we parked in a public, multi-story garage nearby before discovering the hotel did have their own parking. We moved to their parking pretty quickly once we found it.
The hotel is very nice. It’s not the #1 hotel in Galway, but it’s up there. We figured we deserved to splurge after all that driving.
We got checked in and freshened up a bit and then went exploring. We didn’t have lunch on the drive so we had a late (lite) lunch in Galway. After that we went back to the hotel and rested up for a several hours before heading back out to find a proper dinner.
Tomorrow, weather permitting, we’re off to Inishmore, the largest of the Aaran Islands. This will be a full day adventure featuring bicycle rentals and wild Irish hares.