Taking a day to rest and reflect

Many were up early today after late nights at either the Bunratty Castle or the Wicked Thimble Pub events. Various excursions and more browsing or classes at the festival are planned for most.

We were informed that tomorrow we'll need to leave at 8:30a from our hotel in order to make our 7p dinner appointment in Killarney. So, that means no trips to the festival on Sunday morning. Glad we saw as much as we did yesterday. We plan to do church today, i.e. at least three churches are on the list. We'll go a sister church to our own at home, to the Last Supper quilt exhibit at the Cathedral today and see if the Christmas exhibit at the St. Nicholas Church has been hung yet as well.

But first, we'll go to our sister church.

We found that it was less than 4km walk to the church from our hotel, so decided to wear comfortable shoes and enjoy the beautiful day by walking up the road to the church. A lot of gentle uphill, but we got to see things like this wild rose type flower, maybe an Irish Rose?? growing along the roadside.
This is a sister church with our own in America,  right here in Galway. They are a small group and quite culturally diverse. They invited us to stay for lunch as well.

We then walked back towards town to visit a couple of other churches.

This was our view from a bench in a park along the way.

These hole covers intrigued me so I stopped and took a photo of one.

This is the entrance to Shop Street ...a pedestrian way that was quite crowded. Fun to see the banners for the IQFOI.

The Galway Cathedral was housing "The Last Supper" pieced by Don Locke, quilted by Linda Taylor--yes the same LT that I have taken several classes from over the last couple of years. What a spectacular setting!

Detail of Jesus Face. Each square is 1/2" finished.

Label, applied prior to quilting, so quilted into the quilt.

Details from the back.

Here I am with the piecer himself!

Beautiful walk along the river.


This is a special photo for my sister who loves those ducks!

Farmer's Market was on our way to St. Nicholas Church.

At the St. Nicholas Church was a Christmas Exhibit and an opportunity to do an ornament exchange. Here were some of my favorite quilts.

The stained glass was worth photographing as well!

We enjoyed 'chips' for dinner and some gelato. If you don't know, my husband likes to make our own gelato at home, so it is a special treat to try gelato when we are out and about. We had 'After Eight', 'Passion Fruit Yogurt' and 'Caramel'. All were very yummy!
At this point we were debating to get a cab back to the hotel, but we persevered and finish the day's total walking of likely over 12km by walking back to the hotel. The bottom of my left foot feels bruised, so hoping a good night's sleep will give it sufficient rest to be ready for our adventures tomorrow. If I had worn the rainboots I brought, I would have fit right in to the styles around here. Fortunately we didn't have any rain today, it was beautiful!

Time to pack up and get some more rest before we head off to Killarney tomorrow.