Galway and Salthill

The Great Ireland Voyage, 2011. I went to Ireland, from October 24 - November 2, 2011. I attended a conference in Dublin, and then had some vacation days in Dublin and elsewhere, including Galway. I took a good number of pictures.

This part covers Galway and Salthill.

Click on the thumbnail images to get larger ones (around 100-300K). Click on the "huge" link to get the full size pictures (around 3M). Around 100 pictures included.

The Train to Galway

I had no desire to drive in Ireland. First (and least) is the driving on the other side of the road. Not that big of a deal, but it's one more thing to pay attention to. Second is the expense (since they use petrol instead of gas). Third is dealing with a car in Dublin (even just getting in and out of town where I'd rent it. Fourth is the navigation. I'm not keen to get lost in a foreign country. And having the signs in Irish will only serve to confuse me. And finally, fifth, I'd rather spend my (limited) free time enjoying and exploring the country, rather than just trying it figure out where I am, how to get to where I want to be, and where I can park.

I had planned to go to Galway, which is on the west side of Ireland (Dublin is on the east). It's about 150 miles. Taking a bus was one option. Taking a train was another option. I haven't taken many trains, and still had the romantic image of a train as something out of "Murder on the Orient Express" or something, in which there are nice window shades, lamp shades, and the chuga-chuga-chuga-chuga of the engine that things it can. To top it off, the only other time I've taken a proper train ride, resulted in hitting two people, killing one of them (see the Portland to Seattle on Amtrak part of my 2010 Pacific Northwest trip). So anyway, I took the train.

It was actually pretty easy to book the tickets online using my computer in the hotel. I had to set up an account and password and such, which I dislike, but it wasn't too painful. Arriving at the station, I entered the receipt number into a kiosk and it printed out my tickets. So basically things went pretty smoothly. And no one was killed or even hit on this trip.

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I took the train from the Heuston train station in Dublin. The first picture is of the entrance, the second is of the Big Board with the status of the different trains, and the third is of the turnstyles to get to the platform.

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Adn then three pictures of the trains at the station. One is arriving in the thrid picture.

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It wasn't really that dark in the train station. But I liked the look of that picture. The arriving train saying "Heuston Station" in Irish. It toggles between that and English. The second picture shows the one I am going to take, the 9:30 train to Galway.

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The first picture shows the inside of the train. It was perfectly comfortable. Tables on each side, with two seats on each end. Half the seats faced forwards, half faced backwards.

The second picture shows me looking out the window and the third is me staring at the camera. They were self timer shots. But you know that I was thinking that somehow this wasn't exactly the way I had imagined the inside of a train should look.

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To further disrupt my romantic vision of the choo-choo train, there was a sudden shudder throughout the train as the diesel engine started. It felt exactly like a car starting. A little shudder, then a vroom, then a low vibration as it idled. It was like an electric train, a subway in New York or D.C. Sigh, disappointment.

The stationmaster waved a flag and then we departed. No shudder. No black clouds of smoke. No "wooo wooo" of the whistle. We zipped along the countryside. There really wasn't much to see, and it was a bit of a gray, rainy day, so I only took a couple pictures as we got close to Galway at the end.

Arriving in Galway

After arriving in Galway, I took a cab to the B&B I had reserved. It was a block away from the Galway Bay.

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I got off the train. It was a quick cab ride to the B&B. The second picture shows the house and the third shows the street where it is, with an Irish cat crossing the Irish street, Irishly. Note that "Galway" could be substituted for "Irish" in the last sentence to make things a little more specific, but I did not verify that it was a local cat.

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A block away from the B&B was the Galway Bay. The first picture is looking west towards Salthill, a resort town about a 10-15 minute walk away. The second picture was looking east towards the center of Galway, which would be off the left side of the picture, a 10 minute walk away.

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I took a picture of a house that was at the corner and one that was facing the Bay. Nice looking places.

Downtown Galway

Once I had my stuff dropped off at the B&B, I headed into town, to get lunch and look around. This was Saturday, 2 days before Halloween. Galway is an artsy, touristy, sort of place.

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There were various Halloween decorations set up. One store said "Welcome to Goulway". The Latin Quarter area has a number of streets, some narrow, others fairly wide, that are pedestrian only, with lots of stores. One flower store had some nicely carved Halloween pumpkins out in front.

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Another picture of a street sign. The Occupy Wall Street movement had representation on Galway too, as Occupy Galway. This was in Eyre Square. The second and third pictures show where signs were posted by the Occupy movement.

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Next to the signs were tents. It was a small but sturdy contingent. The Bank of Ireland was across the street from the park, visible in the third picture.

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There was a fountain with a scuplture in it, by the park. One guy has a yellow vest that says "Occupy Galway Medic" on the back.

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The Galway Farmer's Market on Church lane next to St. Nicholas' Church has been around for around 500 years. They sell fruit and vegetables, crafts (like knit hats), and more. The third picture better captures the hustle and bustle of the place.

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The first picture shows an olive vendor. It looked good, but I had just eaten lunch and really had no place for food. The second picture shows a stand that sells baby hats (I bought one for friends who had just had a baby). The third picture includes a flower stand with St. Nicholas' Church in the background.

St. Nicholas' Church and Galway Cathedral

Next up, I wandered around Galway a bit. The Farmer's Market was right next to St. Nichoals' Church, so I wandered around there a bit. And then I walked north to the Galway Cathedral. It was a gray, rainy, drizzly afternoon.

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A small graveyard sits next to the church. The Farmer's Market is visible beyond the fence. The church is visible on the right side of the third picture.

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The church is an old stone building. The first picture is looking up at the church and the second is of some of the stonework towards the top. It's not a huge church, but it's not tiny. Again, the Farmer's Market, and the place selling knit baby hats, is visible beyond the fence.

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There's a nice skull and crossbone on a stone column. And one more picture of the church. Looks to be 2:30 in the afternoon, according to the clock.

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After heading north, I saw a nice, blue door in a gray building. Given that it was a rainy, gray day, the blue door stood out, so I took its picture. The Corrib River goes south into the Galway Bay, which eventually goes into the Altantic Ocean. The second picture is of the Corrib River, looking south. The third is looking north.

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A few shots looking north on the Corrib River and the Salmon Weir Bridge. The Galway Cathedral is the big building on the left in the third picture.

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Two pictures of the Galway Cathedral. Both from the far side (east) of the River Corrib.

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On the east side of the Salmon Weir bridge, looking at the Galway Cathedral.

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Inside the cathedral, they have some nice stained glass windows. I took a few pictures of them, including some telephoto shots. Most of them were taken using a pew as a makeshift tripod.

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More stained glass windows from the Galway Cathedral. I think the first is Jesus doing something good. The third is maybe Adam and Eve getting Cast Out for doing something bad (snacking).

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A picture of the alter in the center of the cathedral. The layout of the building is a big cross.

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On the way back, I saw a purple door that struck my fancy. The second picture is looking east to the southern part of Galway on the bay (this is, I think, where the River Corrib joins the Galway Bay). The third picture is the same with some boats in the foreground.

Galway Bay and Salthill

Salthill is a suburb of Galway, about 1.5 miles (3km) to the west. It used to be a seaside resort. There's a long promenade that goes along the sea, as well as casinos, pubs, restaurants and the like, plus a museum or so. I walked to Salthill and then around the shore. It was still kind of gray, and eventually getting towads the end of the day.

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The first picture is looking out at Galway Bay from Galway, near where the B&B was. Looking to the west, the town of Salthill is visible. In the third picture, the Mutton Light Famine Memorial rock is visible in the distance.

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The Mutton Light Famine Memorial Rock is in a park right by the water. The rock commemorates the Mutton Lighthouse which was the last light many emigrants saw when leaving Ireland during the potato famine of 1847. The second picture shows Mutton Lighthouse.

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Here is a panoramic photo of the Salthill area. It's OK, but there are visual artifacts from the different pictures.

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Another panoramic photo, looking the rest of the way around, including the memorial rock and Galway, or at least the neighborhood near the B&B on the western side of Galway. This picture has even more visual artifacts from the different exposures of the pictures used to compose the panorama. Also, apologies that the thumbnail is wider than the window, but that's what scrollbars are for.

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Across from the memorial park, across the road, was a stone wall. I took a few pictures of it. The first was looking back towards Galway, the second, towards Salthill, and the third from across the street, showing the pattern of the rocks. I was playing a little with narrow depth of field on the first two pictures.

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As usual, a picture of a map, so I know where I am. The owner of the B&B asked me I walked the whole trail. I think I did. She told me that it's a tradition to kick the wall at the far end of the trail, and that for reasons no one can explain, it doesn't feel like she could claim that she actually walked the whole trail if she didn't touch or kick the wall at the far end. The map mentions that as well, though I didn't read that at the time.

The second picture is a rock and water. And the third is the waves hitting a rock in Galway Bay.

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Three more instances of wave action.

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Getting to the outskirts of the downtown area of Salthill, I took a picture of a road sign. Sure, there is English there. And route numbers. And even a sign to indicate which way the roundabouts go (counter- or anti-clockwise). But it just supports my decision that I didn't want to have to deal with all that. Also, notice that cars are parked on the RIGHT side of the road, essentially against traffic. I think this is just another way to confuse tourists, since the visual cues of which way the parked cars face can make them forget that people drive on the left. And on the far right edge of the picture, oncoming traffic is visible to the right (driving on their left).

Blackrock diving tower is exatly what the name says. There are a couple of planks just above the water, and some higher platforms to use for diving. While I was watching, people were jumping in from the lowest planks. The water was not very warm, which is to say cold. Not murderously cold, just unpleasantly cold.

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Another sequence of a kid jumping off the diving board at the blackrock diving tower. The water seemed like it was chilly. Not freezing, but not warm at all. Most of the people there just wore a basic bathing suit and didn't seem too bothered by the cold.

At the end of the promenade was the remains of an old house. I imagine it once had a thatch roof, which had long since collapsed. It was fenced off with signs that clearly said "Keep Out" and "No Tresspassing".

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At the end of the promenade was a wall. And beyond the wall was a large green area. Some of the loops made it look like a croquet course, but it would have been the world's larges croquet course. Looking elsewhere, it became clear it was a golf course.

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There was a man with a tennis ball, who threw it into the water. His dog would gleefully run and then swim out, bobbing through the waves, and retrieve it. Both seemed to enjoy it.

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I wandered around a residential neighborhood in Salthill, a block or so away from the water. The houses had cool, pastel colors (colours?), and once again a door that intrigued me.

Galway at Night

On Saturday night, lots of people were dressed up in Halloween costumes. And there were some circus-like performers: people on stilts, juggling fire, doing acrobatcs, or some combination. I didn't think the camera would take good pictures at night without a flash, and I didn't want to take flash pictures without asking, and I felt like I'd be an obnoxious tourist, even though if you're walking in a big public area in costume with friends, you probably don't mind people taking pictures of you. So I didn't take any pictures (I think I left the camera back in my room).

The next night (Sunday), I decided I'd take a picture of the street (it's the second picture below). There was a post I could use as a makeshift tripod. I was expecting the shutter to remain open for the better part of a second. When I pressed the shutter button, the click-click was fast, just like a daylight picture. And things came out OK. I was pretty surprised at how sensitive the camera was. It is a slow shot, but not nearly as slow as I thought. And the vibration reduction (VR) mechanism on the lens made it even easier to get pictures in focus (at least of buildings).

It was a rainy night, so while people were in costume on their way to parties and bars (and pubs, taverns, lounges, and the like), many were wearing jackets. So I mostly concentrated on taking some night pictures of Galway itself, rather than the people.

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The Irish Presidential election was two days earlier, on Thursday. Michael D. Higgins was elected president. He was in Dublin at the time (as was I). He is from Galway, and that night, was going there. The tour bus driver warned us that there might be extra traffic or roads closed. Walking from the bus station back, I passed a hotel where he was going to arrive. There was a sign, some police and the road right in front of the hotel was closed. For Ireland, that's a big thing. I didn't stay to watch. After all, the Irish president is only a figure-head.

The second picture is on Shop Street where it forks off to High Street. I like the look and the colors of this picture with the sheen from the water on the street. The third picture is of High Street.

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Another picture of High street. And then one at a street crossing. High Street, and Shop Street, are pedestrian roads only (well, unless an emergency vehicle needs to come through). The road there did have cars. I imagine it would be a pain to drive there, given the large amount of tourists. And one more shot of another area of High Stret.

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I had lunch at the Front Door Pub the first afternoon. It was decent. And one more shot of the tourist area. Then a picture of the bridge that crosses the River Corrib on Father Griffin Road. This was looking to the north, towards town.

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Another few shots on the bridge on Father Griffin Road. This is essentially the same view as in the last two pictures in the "St. Nicholas' Church and Galway Cathedral" section above. The last picture is on the bridge, looking back (east) to the "Latin Quarter" of Galway, where I had just been.

This page last modified Dec 20, 2011.
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