Take Me To The g Club While At The Galways Races

Our friends, L and A, are on their honeymoon and visiting A's family who live in Ireland. Their destination this week...the Galway Races!

This is the week long, premier horse racing festival that takes place at Ballybrit race course outside of Galway, Ireland.

The Galway Races begin on the last Monday in July, meaning yesterday, and they run until August 3. It has truly become the greatest of all Irish racing festivals and certainly the most lavish and colorful of social occasions.

Ladies Day (Best Dressed Person Competition) takes place on Thursday, July 31, and their is a grand prize for the best hat. This has become a wildly popular event and very competitive with the ladies dressing in their finery with amazing hats.

The last day of the race, Sunday, August 3, is "Mad Hatter Day" with everyone (women, men, children) displaying the most bizarre hat creations and all vying to be the winner.

Last year's "Mad Hatter Day" winner was the Water Hat, inspired by recent Galway water contamination issues. So you can see that pretty much anything goes!
While at the races you will need a place to stay and my choice in Galway is the g Hotel. An amazing design of Philip Treacy, the hotel is full of contradictions...full of glamor and luxury and yet a touch of the bizarre and whimsical.The g Hotel concierge desk is surrounded by black glass walls acting as a frame for a tank of Connemara-bred seahorses. A bit unusual and definitely creative.
The g Hotel Blue Lounge.

A g Hotel suite.

The zen garden and pool for winding down.

There is nothing corporate or bland about the g Hotel with its eclectic mix of styles that will continually surprise and delight the visitor. Go and enjoy a truly unique hotel; you will always get a dose of the unexpected.

Until next time...