I’d love to tell you we slept in this morning, but honestly, I woke up early pretty much every morning. But, it had been a surprisingly good night’s sleep. We did, though, have a slower start to this morning. We had found an interesting looking spot for breakfast close to the hotel, so we had decided to mix it up and get something besides hotel breakfast this morning. But they didn’t open until 8:30.
So we all met up at 8:30 and made the short walk to Pascal’s Pancakes which was…definitely not open. I think I had selected the wrong location (there were two in Galway, both very close to the hotel), and took us to the one that opened at 9 instead of 8:30. Oops. So, we walked around a bit and enjoyed the views of Galway City before the crowds descended. Even did a little shopping.
Then we walked back to Pascal’s which had just opened, and had a fantastic pancake breakfast. Thankfully most of us caught on to the lady explaining the sizing of entrees and ordered kids’ portions. Mine had strawberries and mascarpone. It was excellent and a really nice change of pace from Irish hotel breakfasts. I think we all enjoyed our breakfast. And I finally found one of the famous European bottle tops that worked! And yes, these are as brilliant as social media makes them seem.
After breakfast we wandered down through Galway, enjoying the opportunity to do a bit of picture taking before the town really woke up as we made our way to our next stop.
Our next stop was the Galway City Museum. This was a donations accepted museum, and was excellent. It explained a lot of Irish history and local culture. It was also a lot bigger than it looked, and apparently confusing in layout to dad, who missed about a floor and a half of it. We enjoyed texting him pictures of him as well as the types of exhibits he was missing, to totally confuse him, as he waited for us outside while we finished exploring.
When we all reunited outside, we did a bit more picture taking, since the museum was right next to the Spanish Arch.
Then we worked our way (via the Aran sweater store, obviously) to our first pub stop of the day: Tigh Neachtain. Here more ciders and whiskeys were consumed and dad had some vegetable soup. This place was exactly what I was expecting from an Irish pub.
From here it was on to another pub, but first, buskers! Dad apparently isn’t into listening to live music in the street for very long, so Nick and I met him and Laura a few minutes later. These kids (they definitely looked younger than me) were incredible!
Then it was really on to the next Galway pub. We went to the King’s Head. Everyone liked this one. We all got some appetizers. I know mine involved fried potatoes. I also tried Bulmar’s cider, which instantly became (and remained) my least favorite of the Irish ciders I had. Overall, the King’s Head was a great experience with great service, good food, and great atmosphere.
When we were done at the King’s Head, we did some more shopping, including one more trip into the Aran sweater place so Laura could get herself a sweater shawl thing. Then we shopped, picture took and music listened our way back to the hotel, where dad headed back to his room and Nick, Laura and I hit the convenience store next door for Irish candy (and less important things like bottled water!).
After we dropped our candy off in our room, Nick and I headed back outside to do some picture taking around Eyre Square, as well as take a couple pictures of the Skeffington Arms Hotel. That hotel has some significant family significance to one of the paras I work really closely with, so I texted those pictures to her once back in the room.
Back in the room, I caught up on social media, and the nightly dinner debate began. Tonight we actually all settled on a place pretty quickly over text, so when everyone was ready, we met downstairs and headed just around the corner to The Cellar.
Dinner here was very good, although some clanking noise in what we think was the air conditioning system was obnoxious, and while we were eating, we had to be communicating with a furniture delivery team and Nick’s dad, since the chair we had ordered was showing up WAY earlier than the original delivery date (and then hours ahead of schedule…). But…the food was great. I think I had a burger here, and I know Nick had bangers and mashed. Dad probably had a salad, and I’m guessing Laura had a sandwich of some sort. Here we also learned that “streaky bacon” on a menu means American bacon.
After dinner we headed back towards the pubs. Our server at the Kings Head had given us some timing advice for catching music, so we were going to try. We headed for Tigh Coili, in the timeframe she had said. Unfortunately, the place was already mobbed and HOT. So…no live music there tonight for us.
Dad led the way into a whiskey bar (shocker!), Sonny Molloy’s. He was very excited to find a quiet bar, with tons of VERY rare whiskeys on display all around the place. I was…less excited, but enjoyed my Orchard Thief and took pictures of the rare whiskeys and the crazy price tags for him.
After Sonny Molloy’s dad was ready for his prohibition era cocktail nightcap, so while timing would have made sense to hop over to the King’s Head for their music, it was off to the…hotel bar. The bartender from the previous night was there again, and she remembered our drink orders. I always worry when a bartender remembers us after just one visit. But, she was lovely, dad got his medicinal tasting cocktails, and I enjoyed another European orange Fanta.
When everyone was done here, dad headed upstairs and Laura, Nick and I headed across the street to Lil Bro’s Pizza. There’s a place in Galway called Dough Bros that is ranked 15th best pizza in the world, and it had been on Nick and my list to try. Dad (who seemed to be eating American food and drinking American cocktails whenever possible) had vetoed this stop at lunch time because “I can eat pizza at home!” But Nick and I both still really wanted to try their pizza. Nick had realized that Lil Bros is owned by Dough Bros and sells pizza by the slice. So…to Lil Bros it is!
Here we got 3 slices of cheese pizza. The decor of the place was…fascinating. And the pizza? AMAZING! Absolutely worth the heartburn that goes with consuming tomato sauce just before bed.
Pizza consumed, we headed back to the hotel where we did some packing and admittedly some head scratching about my very well traveled dad’s rigidity before eventually crashing. Tomorrow we were hoping to get a reasonably early start.
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