Friday, February 11, 2011

day 10 – mullingar, belvedere house

We’d gotten to Mullingar, Co Westmeath late the night before and stayed at a very nice B&B (unfortunately, I can’t remember the name) with a gorgeous kitchen and owners who had spent many years stateside.  We really liked the garage so I took a picture:

DSC_2474

We started out the day looking for the Mullingar Pewter Factory.  I have a special affinity for Mullingar Pewter because our wedding goblets are from Mullingar Pewter.For some reason it turned out to be a harder place to find than we’d remembered.  But it was still neat.  The factory wasn’t actually open for tours but the manager let us take a peek at what little was going on in the factory.  Here’s a few random shots around the factory floor.

DSC_2478
DSC_2479 
DSC_2480

Afterward we started on our way toward Galway without a real plan for what we were going to do for the day.  As we were driving, we started seeing signs for Belvedere House and Gardens.  We ended up having to make a U-turn but we decided that we’d make the stop – a new place for everyone.

DSC_2482
A sheep on the grounds.

One of the features of Belvedere House is the largest romantic folly in Ireland, called the Jealousy Wall.
DSC_2498 
DSC_2499
DSC_2501

We then walked over to the Belvedere House and took the self-guided tour.
DSC_2508
100_0113 
DSC_2511
The back of the house.

On to the gardens….
 DSC_2515
DSC_2516 DSC_2520

After our time at the house, we made our way to Spiddal, Co. Galway which would be our home base for the next few days.DSC_2527
the view out the restaurant windows.

We took a walk along the water after dinner… well… Will may have wanted to find a cache.  I took a bunch of sunset pictures.  They would have been better and I had a few more that were even better except that they were blurry if we’d had the tripod with us. 
DSC_2528
DSC_2530
DSC_2531
DSC_2532
DSC_2537 

Will found something he really likes in the Spar.
100_0118


View Ireland - Day 10 in a larger map

Day 1: Arrival, Adare, Tralee
Day 2: Dingle Peninsula Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Day 3: Kilarney, Muckross House
Day 4: Rock of Cashel
Day 5: Tipperary and Waterford
Day 6: Wexford and Vale of Avoca
Day 7: Dublin Part 1
Day 8: Dublin Part 2
Day 9: Newgrange

No comments:

Post a Comment