Westport

Once again I took my morning walk around Galway. So peaceful.
 

Aboard the bus, the first stop was the small town of Cong, where the John Wayne movie “The Quiet Man” was filmed. I could see and recognize the bar even from a distance. We saw the Abbey where Duke and Maureen ran through the water flirtatiously. There’s a statue of John Wayne carrying Maureen O’Hara across the street. I can’t imagine this would be a tourist site if the movie hadn’t been filmed here. 
 

From the statue, we all walked to Ashford Castle and the falconry school on the grounds. The handler introduced us to the birds, and then we each got turns launching a hawk from our gloved arms to a tree nearby and then return to us on command. 
 

Back on the bus we stopped at Leenaun for lunch.  At various points along the way, Lolly had pointed out some “lazy beds” of potato fields. Remember the thing about Irish putting organic material on top of rock to make plant-able fields? They did it big time with potatoes, essentially planting them above ground since the English (who controlled most of Ireland) would only let the Irish use unplantable land. They called these “lazy beds,” and during the famine, people abandoned these fields and moved away. Almost 200 years later, the remains of these lazy beds are still visible. Around Leenaun, some of these lazy beds are on hillsides so steep goats would have a hard time climbing them. I don’t know how they managed to tend these lazy beds. And I thought of my ancestors and wondered if any of them had to live off these vertical potato fields.
 

A mile or so from here, we got out of the bus and did a bog bounce, the big hop, where Lolly led us in jumping up and down on a bog like a slow-motion trampoline. What fun.
 

Then we drove to our hotel in Westport, another cute small town. At 6 we gathered in a lounge area for an Irish Coffee demonstration and the limerick reading. I don’t like coffee, and I don’t like whiskey, and I’m not even a big fan of whipped cream. But the instructions and ingredients were excellent, I made one perfectly and had a sip. Still don’t like them, not even when combined! 
 

Everyone dreaded the limerick contest, especially since we each had to read ours to the group. Lolly had pre-read them all, and  most were sweet and none were bawdy, which to me is the hallmark of a good limerick. Lolly made sure I went last because mine was, well, bawdy. It got huge laughs and won first place. One person called it one of her “wow” moments.
Here it is: 
In Dublin there’s a statue of Molly, 
Who reminds me of tour guide Lolly. 
Tourists rub her for luck 
In the hopes of a pluck! 
I mean Molly, not Lolly, oh golly!