Today we will start to return slowly to Dublin, of course with a few stops on the way.

The Ashbrook Lodge turned out to be nice, even if we had to share the bathroom with my friend Gerry. The host was nice and she talked so fast that I had a tough time understanding her.

On the way we stopped at the Turoe Stone, but there was little to see since for its protection the stone is in a closed shed with 2 little windows. The pet farm also located there seems a fun place to take your children.

Another place marked from the “1001 historic places to see before you die” is Clonmacnoise. It holds some of the High Celtic crosses, temples and a cathedral. A very interesting view of the Round Tower with the river Shannon in the background.

After a stop at the Mongam Bog where I could see the turf harvesting machine doing its job and a small bog train, we choose to visit the Portumna Castle.

This stop is one of the nicest we had in this trip. Surprisingly there were not many tourists, considering the beauty of the place. The garden looked perfectly restored to its past glory, while the Kitchen Garden impresses with its plant variety and vegetables.

The castle is still ongoing restoration but panels show you the impressive steps taken to bring it to its present form. My recommendation…if you are in the area, please take the time to visit this wonderful place.

Our stop for the day was Birr where we checked in at “The Ring” B&B, built on the site of a former castle.

We had a very nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant, in downtown…

Tomorrow…Dublin awaits.

Another late morning start. The irish breakfast was wonderful as usual, but our host seemed quite confused: my friend received another name, and more surprising is that she did not know what was the capital of Romania. And even if she was offered the opportunity to visit Romania for a wedding, she decided on Portugal instead.
We had a walk through downtown Galway and enjoyed some interesting, or better said amazing futuristic art work. In about 10-15 minutes we saw a masterpiece being created with graffiti sprays and few pieces of old paper. You can see the result here…as I said…amazing…

Also here, after the usual entry in a bookstore, I managed to buy two heavy books, which are helping me prepare for a life of adventures: “1001 historic places to see before I die” and “1001 nature wonders to see before I die”.
This day initially was planned as a light one, but we managed to make it quite busy. First we decided to go to the Twain Island, near Oranmore, but after a lot of wrong turns we left towards Athenry. Here we visited the Priory, the Castle and the Cathedral.
By this time I noticed that Ireland has very poor and confusing road signs.
We then headed to Poulnabrone megalithic tomb, but of course with other stops on the way. The Dunguire and Newton Castles filled our historic view of Ireland and its heritage.

At Poulnabrone I was shocked and outraged to see some tourists climb up on it for some photos, regardless of the signs saying not to. We roamed around a bit more through the Burren until we decided we were hungry enough.

We had dinner at Logues Lodge in Ballyvaughn, which I can definitely say it is a charming place with good food and value.
After the wonderful dinner, we watched the sunset going down over the land and the old church in Ballyvaughn.