Galway - June 3

Sunday, June 3

In the morning we had breakfast at the B&B. They served buffet style, which is nice since I usually don’t eat all of my food because the portions are usually too much for me. 

 

After breakfast we walked back down to Eyre Square Shopping Center. What a difference from the night before! It was nearly empty! It was a lovely day, fresh and clean from the rain. 

 

There are a lot of street performers here and in Dublin. This woman was entertaining the morning crowds (such as they were).

We did some browsing  in the shops and stopped for tea at  cute little place called Cupan Tae—cozy, eclectic, lace and linen.Those are teacups hanging from fishing line in the window.

Our server brought us tea and gave us a timer saying that when the brown sand went through the timer our tea was ready to serve. 

Jane and me

We browsed more shops and I bought myself a Claddah ring. 

Then we waked along the River Corrib till we got a little way past Bowling Green street.

We met a man who was fishing and Jane engaged him in conversation. He was fishing for trout. He wasn’t having much luck and the catch was better last year. He told us of the commercial salmon farms that were causing the fish to get sick. Because the farms keep the fish bunched together they get stressed and succumb to disease and parasites. These parasites escape the fish farms and infect the wild salmon population too. He was very interesting and I think we chatted with him for about half an hour!

After that we went back and checked out of the B&B and headed for home. Jane’s navigation tried to take her to the wrong place going home. Apparently there’s more than one Main Street in the area where she lives.

Perfect weather. Jane's choice of driving times kept us from having to sit in holiday weekend traffic. Her choice of locations to stay at and visit were spot on (she would have preferred something more tourist friendly than Inis Meain). We had a great weekend!

Cooking at Howth Castle May 30

Wednesday, May 30

Jane surprised me with a hands on cookery class in a castle on Wednesday night. We collected Allison, her sister-in-law and met two of her friends at the castle. There were about 20 people (only one of them was a man, but he seemed to have a good time).

The menu:

• Marinated Beetroot with Grilled Goat Cheese
• Baked Sea Bass with a Cannellini mash and Basil Sauce
• Green Beans with roasted red peppers and pine nuts
• Lemon Roasted Potatoes
• Yogurt, Orange and Cardamom Panacotta with Poached Nectarines.

We all worked together to prep the ingredients and then we sat in the Butler's pantry and ate the meal. Everything was delicious! There wasn't anything I didn't like. LOVED the Lemon roasted potatoes! They gave us printed recipes for everything so I can cook any of it again when I get home. I definitely will do that!