We woke up at 9 o’clock and made our way to the near Lough Conn and had breakfast on a bench near the pier. Then we went to the Gortnor Abbey, an old monastary that is now a middle school. We saw a lot of birds and a newly created courtyard with young trees. 🌳🌲
Then we drove to the Titanic Memorial Parc in Addergoole. From that area in Ireland 13 persons were travelers on the Titanic, but only 3 survived. The Parc is a monument for all of them who died and is impressive. There are artpieces that are dedicated to them and at one information point you can read the story from every person. It was interesting but also hard because the sink of the Titanic (April 1914) was very tragically. Only 712 people survived and almost 1500 people died because of the little amount of rescue boats. One story that really touched me was from an aunt and her niece. The aunt Catherine McGowan, who was in her 40s, lived in the US for some years and wanted to effort her niece Anna Louise McGowan a better life in America. So she came home to Ireland to pick up Anna and bought the tickets for the Titanic for the two of them. But only Anna survived but could live a long lucky life till she was 95. All the stories and this place were touching and it was heart to leave.
We ate lunch in our bedrooms of the Dolphin Hotel and began watching a new german series called ‚the Race‘ – four Germans try to reach Gernany from Marocco as soon as possible without a phone and no money. 📺
In our midday break our parents took a nap, Laura watched some videos and I learnes a little for chemistry next year.
Our next destination was the National Museum of Country Life in Turlough, a village 40 min away. The museum is located in a beautiful parc with garden houses, a lake and a lot of cute flowers 🌺🌹🌷.
In the building itself we first learned something about Irish history from the 19th centery on, including the Great famine between 1845 and 1847 and the Independence War until the full independence on December 6, 1921. Then the museum contined and showed many important parts of the hard country life of Ireland: they showed a lot of the professions that worked in a village of example the Tailor, Blacksmith, shop owner, shoe maker and the farmers. They showed how almost everything was made by straw: saddles for horses, armchairs, baskets and jewelry. Moreover they showed how much the seasons influenced the people and outlined important days they celebrated. In the museum you could also see traps and boats they used for fishing – in the summer even out on the Atlantic. 🌊⛵
At 5 p.m. the museum closed and we continued walking around the whole area and explored the parc a bit and also saw one old thatched roof house. 🏠
Our last attraction of the day was Westport and at first we arrived at the parking place and heard the bells of the near church ring. It was pretty nice because there sat a lot of birds on the roof top and looked in the exect same direction and as the last bell rang, all the birds flew away. ⛪ 🐦
We walked through the pedestrian promenade and looked into a book shop and then wanted to eat something. But every restaurant in the city center was full or reserved so we went outside of it and ended up in a 4 star restaurant and had a delicious dinner. 🍴
Until 9:45 p.m. we stayed in a PUB and listened to a live band 🎶
