Day 9: Saturday (6/15/2013)

Today we were going to visit the Aran islands, but after a week of getting up early and rushing around, we decided to take an easy day and see Clonmacnoise instead.

We started out with our usual stellar breakfast from Frank.  While eating, he mentioned to us that the Galway Market was going on near the church in the old town.  This is a combination Farmers Market and craft fair, and happens once a week on Saturday morning.  We decided to check it out.

The farmer's market was worth
checking out.

The market was a lot of fun--lots of interesting local foods on sale, as well as some local crafts.  Mary picked up some Irish honey (from the Burren, which we'd just seen a few days ago) while we bought ourselves a picnic lunch.  Local cheese, local preserved meats, a small sampling of some fudge, and a round of nutty Irish soda bread.  Good to go.

We headed out immediately afterward.  Conmacnoise is an ideal day trip from Galway--it's about 1.5 hours into the interior, and its easy to find.

The reason I'd wanted to go to this site is because Brian Boru, the great high king of Ireland, attended school here.  I'd enjoyed reading some of Brian's history, and was interested in learning more about what his life was like.

Clonmacnoise.

Clonmacnoise is gorgeous.  The ruins of the abbey sit alongside a well-presented museum, all on the banks of the lazy Shannon river.  The remains of the monastery sing in the ever-present wind.  The grounds are a riot of well-tended green.  And crazily enough, we got to explore it all in warm sunshine.

We wandered the site for quite a while before going through the museum and viewing the 20 minute film describing the history of Clonmacnoise.  We ate a picnic lunch--for a wonder, it wasn't raining!--outside amongst a small grove of trees. It was a great afternoon.  I'm really not sure Clonmacnoise isn't mentioned in more guide books, but I'm not complaining--this is probably what keeps it tour-bus free.

After lunch we headed back.  We took advantage of the sunshine to go on a 3mi run around Galway, before having a cheap (and frankly, terrible) dinner at a nearby coffee house.  I'm not going to bother to write more about that meal.