I said goodbyes to family and boarded the plane in Dublin for the short flight back to London. Robert met me at the airport and we made our way to pick up a rental car and started the drive to Wales. We stopped in Cardiff, the capital and largest city of Wales, for dinner at Tiny Rebel Brewery.

We had delicious lamb burgers!

A beautiful day for a hike! We headed out of the cottage and down a few lanes out onto the moors towards a headland.

We came across an arch, probably the mouth of a collapsed sea cave eroded into the rocky coast by the incessant battering of waves on the wild Atlantic coast of west Ireland!

At the base of the headland, Achill Head, looking north towards Keem Strand where we went swimming a few days ago.

We hiked further up on the slope on our way back, coming across ancient rock walls. Were they property boundaries, maybe erosion barriers? They don’t seem to hold the sheep in or out of the area at any rate.

On our drive back to Achill Island from Galway we stopped in the small town of Clifden and found these ruins of a relatively ‘young’ castle outside of town. Built in 1835, it didn’t last very long for a castle!

At one point the castle was a school for young Irish girls training to be maids for the “Big Houses” of the English or Irish gentry landlords.

The drive along the wild west Irish coast is beautiful!

We ended the day with an evening walk into the moors as the sunset colored the clouds.

The 5 of us Fallon and extended family took a trip to Galway to experience the trad (traditional) music scene there.

We started with a trad Irish lunch!

After lunch we joined a city walking tour to learn some history of the city, including visiting a section of the medieval city wall preserved within a modern shopping mall! Much more scenic is the short 3.7 mile River Corrib that flows from Lough Corrib to Galway Bay through Galway City.

Moored on the river is a Galway Hooker, a type of boat specific to the area, built to withstand the rough seas of Galway Bay.

We also saw the cutest thatch-roofed store in Galway!

We finally made our way to The Crane Bar, after attempting to hear trad music at 3 other bars, but finding no seating available!

We arrived early enough to get seating to view and hear the 3 fiddlers, one accordionist, one harmonica player and a drummer on a snare drum perform.

The harmonica player also did several Irish step-dance sets!

Robert spent the day on another adventure in London, visiting the Tower Bridge and the nearby attractions!

The moat around the Tower of London has been re-landscaped into a wildflower garden Oasis!

In the background is the Tower Bridge, often mistaken for the London Bridge.

In 1968 the London Bridge which was opened in 1831, was sold to an entrepreneur who reconstructed it at Lake Havasu City in Arizona in 1971! A new London Bridge, in London, was constructed and opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973.

The Tower Bridge is supposedly more impressive than the London Bridge!

After a tour of the bridge from below and above, Robert continued his walk around London.

A view of the Tower Bridge with the modern skyline of London in the background.

A beautiful garden view along the Thames River.