Chauffeured vacations/tours in Ireland. Personal guided vacations in the west and south west of Ireland

The tourist season gets its first injection of customers with the advent of St Patrick's day, and today i started on a new adventure with Sara and Dianne and their families and friends. In the picture above, we have Sara, and two of the young men Trevor and Dan, who are a part of this group. They are all here to celebrate the wedding of Sara's daughter, which takes takes place in the afternoon in St Mary's church, the Claddagh. The church is in the background, directly over their heads in the photo. I took this picture from the Long Walk, a road along the bank of the famous river Corrib. This road was actually outside the city walls. It was a popular walk for sailors whose boats were tied up further up the river bank.
The Claddagh area across the river was where the famous Claddagh Ring originated.

As this was my first meeting with this group,i took them on a brief tour of the city to show them some of the main sights. In the picture they are pictured with the old original university college building in the background. This was one of four Universities built during the reign of Queen Victoria, and was called Queen's University Galway. The other three were based in Belfast, Dublin, and Cork.

I have already mentioned that Galway was a walled city and unfortunately there is very little evidence of this left due to very little appreciation of just how much this might be missed in years to come. The river can be seen here in the background, with the famous Spanish Arch at the end of the wall. This Arch was a gateway in the wall, just at the edge of the river. It was just one of a number of gates, the main one being in Eyre Square, in the centre of the town.

St Nicholas's Church is the oldest building in Galway and is famous for the fact that Christopher Columbus and his crew attended mass here before setting out on the final leg of their journey to the New World. It has a great history, which includes its desecration by Cromwell's forces, who after taking Galway stabled their horses here. It was a Catholic church in those days, but when it was re-opend eventually it was occupied by the Church of Ireland, and still is to this day.

Here we have Lynch's Window, that famous window from where a father hung his own son. The father was a magistrate who was forced to adjudicate at the trial of his own son for murder. The son was found guilty, and as nobody would hang the young man, due to his popularity, and the fact that there was little sympathy for the murdered man, the father hung him himself. Justice can be cruel. They say that that is where the term Lynching came from, our famous magistrate Lynch.

This was a lovely first get-together with Sara and friends, who begin their tour proper with us on Wednesday as they start out on their journey to the south. I start another tour also tomorrow morning with a couple, Chuck and Gerry, from New York, who will be with me into next week. One of my main drivers will be looking after Sara and Dianne, but we will all be meeting up in Killarney on Wednesday evening.

This looks like being a very busy season, so if you have aspirations to visit Ireland, and to enjoy a chauffeured vacation, then we will be only delighted to do our best to fit you in. Just make sure you do not leave it on the long finger. You may be disappointed if you do.
If you are planning to enjoy the western seaboard of our beautiful country, flying in to Shannon is a great way to begin.This is such a lovely airport and so easy to get in ad out of compared to the main ones.If you want to visit Dublin also then you can finish of your tour there and fly home from Dublin.
No matter where i am heading for, if it can be done by using Shannon airport, then that is what i make sure i do.

Make sure to saty with us over the coming days,and indeed months.

Hello again to all my friends.

Dave