UMTravels

Today is “tour” day. This means that both Mindi and I are up “butt early” — what time is “butt early”? 6am and to the train station by 6:40am for a 7:10am train from Dublin to Galway. Ick.

I grabbed a sandwich and a Diet Coke in the train station as I’d heard the food on-board wasn’t that great — and from what I saw on the trolley, I’d believe that — personally I was sleeping for half the trip even though we were going through the Irish version  of Kentucky’s Blue Grass area of horse breeding.

By a little after 10am we were on the bus — the one person from the train that was part of my tour — and 19 other’s assembled in Galway. Nice new train from Hyundai of South Korea:

One of the highlights of the day trip was the Kylemore Abbey. I didn’t opt for the extra 8 Euro ticket to the tour the walled garden and the Abbey proper. I thought eating, shopping reading and relaxing was the better way to go. Here is a stunning shot of the Abbey from across the lake:

Yeah, I think I could live there assuming I had staff. Scares me to think what it would cost to heat.

Lots of photo stops on the trip, so here is the scrolling bar:

Back in Galway after the tour I finally located an “off-license” store — that’s Irish and British for liquor store — so I could restock Jeff and Mindi’s bar (one of my tips for being a good house guest, the subject of a blog post in the next couple of days).

Got back to the train station around 9pm and took a 10 Euro taxi home to have night caps with the kids.

Looking forward to a full night’s sleep.

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