Transfer & Walk, Galway

A casual breakfast ... the usual buffet and fry up, and then we set off for the train station... A walk across Dublin -if we had known more about the bus and tram routes we may have taken one, however we took the direct route.
At the train station we soon got our tickets and picked up some bits for lunch, and before long we were settled into our reserved seats.
The train took 2 and half hours and around 9 stops to cross Ireland. We pulled into the railway station - end of the tracks, and headed off into town.

We were booked into a hotel called the House hotel. However, getting there our room was not ready and we had to wait for over an hour. Not a problem to start with, but as the time went on was a little annoying, especially as others arrived after us and got in immediately. The room was light and airy with a dual aspect, retrospectively it was worth the wait.

We dumped the bags into our room and headed off to explore .. everything pointed to Quay street .. pedestrianized shopping and full of people... I had enough very quickly and was relieved when we came out at Eyre square.
We looked at the map, and saw a route back, down by the river, past the cathedral.

The river was running high and fast with numerous fish, not sure if any we saw were Salmon.

From here we crossed over and followed the maze through the inner harbours to the outer breakwater.
Far out on the end we were almost alone .. a brief glimpse of an Otter, heading down the steps as we arrived.

Not sure what we were going to eat for dinner or where ... but on our walk back to the hotel we got drawn to a bar near the commercial harbour - Dock not bar, for a pint. They served food and the menu looked interesting.
We went back there for dinner, and were shown upstairs where there was a "proper" restaurant .. O'Connaires and we had struck gold .. the food was brilliant, and service excellent.
A much shorter walk back via the Spanish gate, and ready for tomorrow - we had booked a coach tour to the limestone pavements of the Burren.