Galway to Donegal

We left Galway this morning after having breakfast with two women from Iowa. We first met them at our B&B in Waterford about a week ago, then ran into each other at the Shannon ferry on Thursday. Last evening we were in the lounge in Galway doing our Internet work and they walked in! There are thousands of B&Bs in this country; it is amazing that our paths paralleled and crossed like that.

We only had one stop today and otherwise enjoyed the drive through Connemara and into Donegal. Our stop was at Kylemore Abbey. It was built in the 1800s by an Irish/Englishman whose wife was full Irish. She died tragically quite young and he built a miniature Gothic cathedral in her memory (the Irish Taj Mahal??). The place was sold but lost in a poker game and then purchased by Benedictine nuns. They were Irish nuns who had been exiled to Ypres in Flanders during the reformation. They had to flee Ypres during World War I and ended up back in Ireland, purchasing the Kylemore estate. From the 1920s to 2010 they ran an international boarding school for girls in the Abbey; several daughters of Indian rajahs were educated here, as was Anjelica Huston. [I wondered how she did so well portraying an Irish widow in "Agnes Brown."]

The first photo is along the road this morning. Heavy clouds, but sun broke through off and on.

Kylemore Abbey

Neo-Gothic chapel

Chapel interior-- you can see it is quite small

Stained glass in transept window -- only one transept

Tree on grounds

Walk from Abbey to chapel

Chant book nuns brought from Ypres

Our B&B -- Rossmore Manor, outside Donegal

View from the B&B

Another view from the B&B

Sunset from our B&B

We drove the 3-4 kilometers into Donegal for supper at The Harbour Restaurant, recommended to us by our hosts. It was indeed excellent and Donegal is a nice small town.

Yes, Dan's fish and chips again

My roasted hake on scallion mash surrounded by creamed Savoy cabbage

Chocolate "pudding" with ganache and vanilla ice cream -- yum!