In Ireland there are toll roads.  In Dublin there is just one small section of the “Ring Road” that is tolled via an unmanned system.  There is an app that you can download and use to pay your toll, which you need to do by 8pm the day following incurring the toll.  After we picked up the car on Monday morning we went through the toll section and expected to pay the 3.10 GBP toll.  When we used the app and keyed in our plate # it indicated that we had 2 tolls amounting to 6.20 GBP.  I didn’t see a way to only select one toll, so I paid the 6.20.  I think that the previous renter of the car we got went through the toll section and hadn’t yet paid their toll, so we were assigned all tolls for this licence plate.  🙁   There is an option to pre-pay.  This would be a smart thing to do as it should be time related.

These 3 guys hang around outside of the breakfast room at our B&B.   They probably supply all of our eggs!

We are driving a section of the “Wild Atlantic Way”.  It is a tourism trail on the west coast, and on parts of the north and south coasts, of the Republic of Ireland.   It is very good that we have a small car!!  The road is very narrow and has speed limits of 100 kmph in many places!!  Very WILD indeed.

We would have more photos if there were more places to pull over.  We find a few places.  This is Killary Harbour.   Killary Harbour is Ireland’s only true fjord and extends 16km (10 miles) in from the Atlantic.

We stop at another spot and find Stu’s pals the Sheep again!

We come to Kylemore Abbey.  It is undergoing some restoration at the moment, but it is evident  that this is an impressive building.  It was originally built as a Castle in 1867 as a romantic gift.

We pass a town called Clifden and come to a large white beach with a parking lot.  We pull over and find that many people are also checking this spot out.  A number of smaller tour buses as well.  Here are some photos we took here.

We continue on to Galway initially intending to find a B&B here.  Here are a few photos from along the way.

We have not booked anything for tonight.  We arrive in what we feel is rush hour about 4:30pm.  We had heard that Galway is a smaller city than Dublin with a very different vibe.  So we thought we would stay here tonight.  We found it very busy and not what we were looking for in a place to stay.   We set Google maps to a town just to the south and found a smaller town called Oranmore.  We park and find a pub for a beer and some accommodation research.  We find a place about a km away, but then decide to check out the place right next door.  They have 1 double room left at 67 euros!!  Pretty good.  We grab it.  This is what we find.  🙂

Quite pleased!!

There is an Italian Bistro downstairs so we go there for dinner.  Great meal.  We share spaghetti bolognese and a prawn pesto pizza along with a couple of Galway Hooker beers.

Off to Dingle tomorrow!!