day 14 – cliffs of moher

Our last full day in Ireland dawned grey, cloudy, and with quite a bit of rain.  Our only plan for the day was to see the Cliffs of Moher aka the Cliffs of Insanity from Princess Bride.  We’d wanted to attempt something new and take a boat to see the cliffs from a different perspective but unfortunately the weather wholly precluded that plan. 

But we went anyway.  You can’t go to Ireland without seeing the Cliffs. 

Besides they’d completely revamped the place since the last time I’d been there and it was all still under construction the last time my parents had been there so we had to check it out.

Um, it was a little foggy.

 

bundled up against the chill but it wasn’t raining – yet.

Brian’s Tower in the distance.

And it was a little wet.

So that’s when we decided to peruse the visitor’s center (not in existence when I was there), have lunch and hang out.  Will and I finished our postcards.  And miraculously, the weather cleared so Will and I went back out for more pictures.

See that expanse of blank rock – kind of like a platform above – you used to be able to walk right up to the edge and peer over.  You can’t do that anymore.

There are also very strict signs about the end of the path as well.

I got out the telephoto for a few.


We’d left Mom and Dad in the cafe but she came out and was taking a picture of us.  She thought she was being sly but we caught her and took one of her.

 

interesting wood carving
 
We had to get a picture of my dad with this sign since “safe home” is one of his oft used phrases.  
Just one of the many new warning signs.

Will trying to figure out how to get where we’re going.

Cascade falls – there was a cache near here which I believe is why we stopped.

We ended the day back in Shannon to meet up with the cousins for dinner and fly home the next day :(

View Ireland - Day 14 in a larger map

Day 1: Arrival, Adare, Tralee
Day 2: Dingle Peninsula Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Day 3: Kilarney, Muckross House
Day 4: Rock of Cashel
Day 5: Tipperary and Waterford
Day 6: Wexford and Vale of Avoca
Day 7: Dublin Part 1
Day 8: Dublin Part 2
Day 9: Newgrange
Day 10: Mullingar, Belvedere House
Day 11: Aran Islands
Day 12: Kylemore Abbey
Day 13: Galway City, Burren

day 13 – galway city, burren

Our homebase for the 3 days we were in Co. Galway was the Ardmor Country House which was so nice and had great views when the weather permitted.  We took a few pictures before we finally packed up to leave. 

Will really liked these trees – Monkey Puzzle Trees.

Will also really liked this particular Guinness ad on the side of a building (probably a bar but I don’t recall offhand) in Spiddal so we finally got a good picture of it as we were leaving town to head for Galway City.

We had a few goals in mind for Galway – find the Claddagh “statue” that we’d seen a picture of at the Irish festival in Dublin, Ohio; find the Blarney Woolen Mills there to find Will a hat; and find a Claddagh for Will to replace the cheap-o one I got him off eBay that he promptly lost because it was too big.

Finding the Blarney Woolen Mills turned out to be most difficult mostly because Galway was nearly impossible to navigate with the maps that we had on hand.  Will was frustrated to say the very least.  But find it and a parking spot we eventually did.  Unfortunately, we didn’t find what we were looking for and then just wandered into the pedestrian part of town.

We had, or really Will had, been scouring the internet before we went to Galway to try and figure out where the carved Claddagh that we’d seen the picture of was.  He had a pretty good idea by the time we were headed to Galway and in the end we were able to find it:
It turned out that the carving was on a monument to sailors lost at sea in a church graveyard.

In the town, we were able to find both Will’s hat and his claddagh so it was worth the annoyance of having to drive around Galway.  Afterward we headed out into The Burren for some good times in the karst-y landscape.

The main draw of The Burren is this portal tomb, commonly called the Dolman but properly named Poulnabrone Dolmen  

This is where we got our only picture of all four of us together.

The times had sure changed since the first time we were there as you can tell from the picture below:

Yep, that’s me at 13 sitting on the dolmen.  You can see in the picture above that there are now ropes around it so you can’t get too close.  They have also added quite a bit in the way of pathways and educational information though surprisingly, it is still free to visit.

some karst-y flora for your viewing pleasure.

Next stop the Burren center in Kilfenora to learn some stuff (well, after a detour back to the Dolmen to find Will’s sunglasses which we almost didn’t even though someone had already found them and put them through one of the signposts where they should have been easy to find).  Kilfenora also happens to be home to several preserved high crosses that we wanted to check out.

 
Tiny short doorway in the church.

We finished our day by heading to Doolin, Co. Clare for an evening of pub entertainment.  Doolin is known for its live pub music and friendly atmosphere.  I think this is Gus O’Connor’s pub but I can’t be sure.

These old geezers were hysterical – talking to everyone, telling jokes, and for the most part they were all drinking soda and coffee!

Performers.

My folks and I include it because my dad looks like such a drunken Irishman – which he isn’t – that I find it hysterical!  It was just really hard to get a good picture in the very dimly lit bar.

We decided to get coffee, tea and dessert at a different place.

Performers in the second place.

Will and Dad having a good time.

View Ireland - Day 13 in a larger map

Day 1: Arrival, Adare, Tralee
Day 2: Dingle Peninsula Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Day 3: Kilarney, Muckross House
Day 4: Rock of Cashel
Day 5: Tipperary and Waterford
Day 6: Wexford and Vale of Avoca
Day 7: Dublin Part 1
Day 8: Dublin Part 2
Day 9: Newgrange
Day 10: Mullingar, Belvedere House
Day 11: Aran Islands
Day 12: Kylemore Abbey

day 12 – kylemore abbey

Our next day adventure was to one of my favorite places in Ireland – Kylemore Abbey.

We really kind of felt like we were lost driving through the Connemara Coast (more karst if you were interested) because it was pretty desolate.  Pretty though. 

We did finally get there!

 
Happy couples.

The view back across the lake

Inside the abbey itself:

One of the owners of the castle had a gorgeous gothic church built to honor his dead wife.

 

Walking back toward the Victorian Walled Gardens Dad found a cool stump to inspect.

The gardens were a new experience since they’ve never been open on any previous trips since they’ve been under restoration for many years.  They were worth the wait.  We’d stopped at the gardens cafe for some lunch and ended up finishing up right about the time that the guided tour of the of the gardens began.  It was a good tour.

Because we were on a mission to find another Avoca Handweavers to replace a jar of jam that my dad had bought and then dropped, we took a different route home.  Will even was able to stop and find a cache.

 
He didn’t know that I was taking pictures with the telephoto lens :)

It had turned out to be a long day so we stopped for dinner at the first place we could find before getting back to the B&B.

View Ireland - Day 12 in a larger map

Day 1: Arrival, Adare, Tralee
Day 2: Dingle Peninsula Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Day 3: Kilarney, Muckross House
Day 4: Rock of Cashel
Day 5: Tipperary and Waterford
Day 6: Wexford and Vale of Avoca
Day 7: Dublin Part 1
Day 8: Dublin Part 2
Day 9: Newgrange
Day 10: Mullingar, Belvedere House
Day 11: Aran Islands