Ballynahinch Castle & Kylemore Abbey

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With little other options, Kyle actually joined us for breakfast this morning. Dining in the same spot at dinner the night before everyone filled themselves between the buffet and hot dinner order before we finished packing up. As checkout was the same time as our tour end, we packed up the car ahead of time.

The maintenance man/ tour guide took us around the estate the next 2.5 hours sharing immense amount of information about the history of Ireland, progression of the house through that history, details on the fauna, and even stories about his own life. He talked all over the place which drove me a bit crazy, but we learned a lot. We also walked the beautiful estate setting it from many angles. Every photo we took was just phenomenal. I can't wait to go back through them when I'm home. The tour took a bit longer than planned so Alex ditched when his ankle flared up and I hurried us back as the guide dragged out the end as I was ready for food.

We grabbed a table at the Ballynahinch Castle pub for lunch. Kyle ended up with a cauldron full of mussels. It blew us away how many were in there. A short bit later with stomachs full to face the roads again we headed to a deviation from my itinerary. Kyle felt it didn't make sense to drive back this was for the Kylemore Abbey the next day so we headed there today instead. A mere 30 minutes down the road, we made it there with a much less adventurous drive - two lane and no rain. There was just a spare sheep or two on the road we had to avoid.

Kylemore Abbey had an impressive walled Victorian garden that we stared the visit with. Then we hopped into the house just as the rain started up. We were permitted to explore the ground floor which had the history of the original Abbey as well as the house built on that area later and its transition back to an Abbey. The upstairs floors were used by the nuns so unavailable for us. A walk by the Gothic church, mausoleum, and wishing stone ended the visit. Laura was sad because it took us less time than she planned so we still had 30 minutes until Ateez tickets went on sale. She didn't want to risk cell service on the road so we visited the gift shop then found seats at the cafe to wait for that time. It gave time to rest our feet and refuel with drinks before we had our almost 1.5 hours drive to Galway.

A pretty straightforward car ride filled with gummy snacks and kpop, we uneventfully made it to Galway. Cars streamed our of the city as we arrived just passed 5pm. Laura joked we were going the wrong way, which promptly gave Alex a mini heart attack as he checked he was on the correct side of the road. Despite it being congested, we found our hotel pretty easily and lucked out with a parking spot in the lot just across the street. It was even free overnight! We wheeled our luggage in just a the worker was finishing up some desk work. He closed the office door which was fitted with a computer where you checked yourself in and it dispensed the keys to you. He helped with a couple snags as we had two rooms on the reservation and that confused the machine. Our rooms were just one floor up, so of we went. Alex and I opened our door to a closet containing a double bed with barely a foot on each side and a cubby wall as the full from. Right next door, the other the had more than enough space and their accessibility bathroom almost was bigger than our room! Guess we would do any hanging out in that room the next two days. A bit of a juxtaposition to our stay the night before.

Ready for dinner, we headed out into town. Alex and Kyle had talked about paella in Belfast so we went with that theme and found a Spanish tapas restaurant called Sangria. Of course we ordered a pitcher of sangria and many tapas dishes. I had my potatoes as well as rice and beans. The surprise was the rice and beans came on a mushroom, so the others enjoyed that portion. We then explored the town a bit before ending in a pub for a drink. Worn out from driving, Alex returned as we stared round two. When done, I made us stop at the chip shop we saw earlier to try it out. Laura got one with a fun sauce while I played it safe with boring old fries. We munched on them in the streets before finding our way back to the convenient store to grabbed waters for the next day. A short walk back to the hotel had everyone winding down for the night.

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