The next day started with breakfast in the George V Dining Room, no coat required for breakfast.  We were greeted by delightful hostess who seated us and told us about their fantastic ham…she was right, it was delicious.  We were then greeted by Alessandro the “juice sommelier”.  Alessandro was an older gentleman, and you could easily tell that he really enjoyed his job.  He offered several types of juice and a daily blend of several juices.  Alessandro was a joy to see and experience his variety of juice.  The breakfast at the George V Dining Room was fantastic, the best we had during our entire trip.

This morning we had a short bus tour of Galway.  It was narrated by a local who was colorful and engaging.  We departed from the bus and continued with a walking tour of an older section of Galway.  Our guide took us to a distillery for a snack and a morning special mixed drink.  This was a special type of drink made from an Irish Poitin, which is a form of a legal-illegal moonshine. It is a traditional Irish distilled beverage that averages between 40-90% alcohol.

We continued our walking tour to an area of Galway that was street after street of shops.  While some of it was just doing business in Galway, most was a massive tour draw.  We stopped for a very delightful ice cream cone and continued to tour down to the harbor.  At that point our guide turned us lose to explore and spend money.  Carol did find a couple of small stuffed lambs for one of our Granddaughters, specially made of Irish lamb’s wool.  We continued on our own and eventually ended up at a pub for lunch and a quick pint and waited for the bus to pick us up and take us back to Ashford Castle.  We spent the rest of the day relaxing and touring the Ashford Castle grounds.

Dinner this night was a reservation at the “The Dungeon” in the Ashford Castle.  It was down on the bottom floor of the hotel.  I tried another Irish whiskey, buy it was not as good as the Jameson’s Cooper’s Croze.  This was Carol’s birthday dinner, so I very discreetly had a candle put on her desert.  Carol doesn’t like a lot of celebration for her birthday.

George V Breakfast