July 2 Derry or Londonderry

The name choice for the neighboring city is determined by your political affiliation.  Derry for Irish independence, Londonderry for English association.  We avoided the problem by not going into the city and instead touring Glenveagh National Park, about 90 minutes west of the city.

This was a tender port, so we went to the lounge to exchange our tour tickets for bus tickets and waited for a tender ride to shore.  Lots of people going out so it took awhile.

 We shared the crossing with this auto ferry.  We were anchored in a river but the high current said that it was tidal.  Previously we had watched our tenders crossing crabbed over at 45 degrees to counter the current.

 Tender docked in a tiny harbor with lots of fishing boats.

 Here's the secret to how those fishing boats get so colorful.

 On the bus and underway to Glenveagh.  There's our ship out in the river.

 Mussel farming is big here also.  Several of our guides have said the Irish people generally aren't fish eaters.  For some it is too much fish on Fridays when they were children, for others it reminds them of hard times when that was all there was to eat so even though they are surrounded by the bounty of the sea, the bounty is shipped out.

 We arrive at Glenveagh Castle located on Lough Beagh.  Very picturesque.

 The castle actually dates from the 19th century, built as a summer getaway by a rich guy.

 No picture taking inside during the castle tour (at least for ordinary people -- the cruise ship Destination Services Manager was on our tour and posted many pics from inside).  Think Great Gatsby sort of things inside.  And summer only -- even then they had to have peat fires going in most of the rooms just to stay warm.

They did have gardens outside, and we had a few minutes to tour there.

 I think that's a swimming pool for very hardy souls.

 Ireland is full of these little machines that turn grass into sweaters.

 Lots of barley fields  (cynthia takes"ruts" pictures)

 The sun came out on our return to the tender.  As our luck would have it, we were the first people into our tender -- meaning that we were the first people to NOT get onto the preceding tender.  We watched it fill up and float away, with ours arriving 15 minutes later.  But it was sunny and breezy and a balmy 17degrees.  (~64ish US)

July 1 Galway Ireland

Yet another small Irish city.  Cruise ships visit here to visit the Cliffs of Moher, an impressive natural feature about 80km south -- indeed, all of the ship's excursions were in that direction.  But we've already been, during our 2008(?) lap of the British Isles on Globus, so we just wandered through the city.

We tendered to the city and were greeted by the town crier calling for the participants in a private tour.  I wonder if he did the whole tour in character.

 It was a medium walk to the city centre (800-1000m).  It's an interesting city.

 The city is on the River Corrib, and it defines the layout.  Besides the river itself there are at least two canals for transportation and establishing water power.  Here's the dam at the upper end of the city.

 The Galway Cathedral, inside...

 and outside.

 Scenery about the town

 These drops from the canals to the river were everywhere.

 Just across the street from this drop is the mill building, built in 1800. 

Here's the canal on the western side of the river

 And the lock on that canal

 Downtown Galway

 Sign identifying the restrooms at the Dunnes Stores Mall

 River near the mouth, with cathedral in the distance

 Spanish Arch, built in 1584 by the .... Spanish! Chris Columbus believed to have stopped in Galway area on his way west.

 Here in the estuary the moss was amazingly green.  The picture does not do it justice.

 Nautica's tender coming to pick us up.

 Our personal yacht.  We were the only passengers on the return to the ship, along with three crew members and a suspicious looking box shipped to "Nautica".

Jun 30 Bantry

Another small Irish town serving as a jumping off point for a tour around the Beara Peninsula. 

Our arrival in Bantry.  Cloudy and hazy and green.

 Aboard our bus and touring the peninsula.  It seems to be low tide for our tours.

 A stop in Castletown and the famous MacCarthy's Bar.  Since it was Sunday morning there was no drinking and no visiting the inner sanctums.

 We were told that the Irish paint their houses such bright colors to ward off the dreary winter days.

 They even put bright colors on their sheep.  Ostensibly the reason is to identify their owners.

 Mussel farming is big business is this area.

 For the second day in a row our tour stops for a snack and a scone appears.  Yesterday's was better -- they had clotted cream as well as a large tub of butter and jelly.

 For those of you attending the Ascot races, your fasinator is here.

 Statue of a Druid

 Not a sheep

 Also not a sheep, but I can't tell you what it is, other than road art.