Galway....our fortress on Ireland's West Coast

7.49am, Tuesday 19th February, Park House Hotel, Eyre Square, Galway, Ireland

Morning folks – wet hair, suitcase ready to close, sent an email to the boys at O’Donovans Off Licence that we’re doing a wine dinner with down in Cork tonight with my estimated time of arrival…..check, check, check……nearly set to meet the keeper of the Yalumba flame here in the Galway area – Declan Owens from Thomas Woodberrys Wine Merchants – for breakfast! Before I do that, I just want to give you a quick look at the town that’s really taken us under their wing. Our Yalumba Y series wines are fixtures by the glass at some top pubs and restaurants about town, and On the shelves at Thomas Woodberrys in Galway’s Old Town – you can get the spooky small lot wines that we do like the Single Site Moppa Grenache plus a step by step bottle by bottle instruction kit on how to understand and love the ‘great Australian blend’ – Cabernet Shiraz. Yes folks they’re keeping the Australian claret dream alive with us in Galway with the Scribbler, FDR1A and Signature….all featured in last night’s tasting held in the stately halls of Mary and John’s Park House Hotel in the centre of town.

So before I go downstairs for more dippy eggs – great start to a 9 degree C day I think – I want to show you a quick look at yesterday in Galway. Thanks a huge amount to Ma Nature for turning on the sunshine!

First up, the River Coiribe (Pronounced Korr-ibb ) flows through Galway and out to the sea, and is currently hurtling along at a serious rate because of all the recent rains. Good time to point out that coming in from the heat wave conditions we’ve had at home lately, I just cannot get over how GREEN and WET it is here in Ireland……and I love it.The old stone buildings along the river were grain mills.

This is taken from the last bridge before the river goes into the harbour….

2.39pm Lapps Quay – just drove into Cork – now to finish the Galway day.

Walking through the old town to catch up with the folks at T – Nauchtins, one of the lovely old un renovated (thank goodness!) pubs where the stone walls go back to medieval times. They’ve been great supporters of ours, so we stopped in to see the boys in the afternoon – then took the lads from Thomas Woodberrys back in last night after the tasting for a quiet ‘see you next year’ sip!

This is the cobbled lane going down to the harbour that T Nauchtins are on…..along with a stack of pubs for neighbours. This area is absolutely legendary for the live traditional Irish music to be heard every night of the week in at least one of them!

Here’s The Kings Head, est 1649 which makes them exactly 200 years older than us at Yalumba.

And I’d say it was a big weekend in Galway if this is the Monday morning pickup! Imagine what might happen if they actually had some heat in this part of the world!

We had lunch on the fly – cod and chips at the best fish shop in town – McDonaghs est 1902

This is the Thomas Woodberrys Wine Merchants chariot that ferried us about – the sketch was done by one of the owners – Sandra Owens very busy housewife and one time movie set decorator!

There you have it for now…. ‘Tanks a millyon fer havin os’ Galway, and we’ll see you same place same time next year.