It's an early morning start so we farewell Killarney and begin the drive north towards Galway. Betty the GPS suggests we go the shorter, more scenic route so we head towards Tralee. I love that the Gaelic words are usually quite unusual, like the word for Galway is Gaillimh, but the Gaelic for Tralee is Trá Li...
Lovely drive through the open rolling hills. Dennis had played a song yesterday called the 40 Shades of Green, indicating the green colours of Ireland, and it's absolutely true when he said that was the bare minimum of shades of green of this country!
This route involves a ferry ride, so we have a bit of a wait here...
..before boarding the ferry for a 20-minute crossing.
Then Betty has two options, one route is 40 minutes shorter and we are due at the Doolin boat pier at midday so we take the shorter option. This is what Betty lead us through...
Past a renovator's delight...
..to a normal road and we could breathe again! More lovely green fields, farms, cows and blue skies. We didn't want to say how nice the weather was in case we jinxed it and it started to rain. We got to Doolin - how cute is this little village?!
Down to Doolin Pier for our boat ride - pretty glamorous workplace!
In to get our tickets and the lady asked if I had received their email - the seas are too rough and the boats can't go out. We had left the hotel and wifi before the email arrived and so we didn't know. She was so lovely and was quite worried that we'd come all that way. I told her not to worry, we had tickets for the visitor section at the top as well so it wasn't a wasted trip. Disappointing that we can't go out on the boat, but we can see it from above and who would want to go out on this...?
Actually, this photo makes it seem like the sea captains are wusses and it's not too bad - it was bad! Just didn't photograph as rough as it was...
Back into the car and up to the visitors centre, passing this on the way...
Then to the cliffs themselves which, according to the brochure, rise 214 kilometres high and were formed about 320 million years ago when this area was much warmer and situated on a large river. The river flowed down, bringing mud and sand, eventually dumping it all over this area where it settled and formed the rock layers seen today.
Not everyone did this - there were some lads sitting on outcrops while their mates took photos, and some Japanese tourists posing near the edge.
We walked up on the inside of the safety wall until there was a huge puddle on the way and we had to climb over the wall and walk a way up. There is nothing stopping anyone from falling, but it is quite wide, so okay if you're careful. After this side, we went across, up a heap of stairs, but it was all worth it - just amazing!
We met a pair of sisters travelling together and we took each other's photos - they are from Canada and have been to Scotland and now Ireland - they are on a bus tour coz they don't feel confident to drive on the left! It's lovely meeting other travelers and hearing their stories - at the Torc Waterfall yesterday, we met a honeymooning couple from Pennsylvania and took each other's photos there.
It's not overly cold but we're wearing hats because the winds are bracing and pretty ferocious. Alison had trouble standing up a few times and trouble with the iPad to take the sisters' photo as it acted as a wind vane. And we did get a touch of windburn.
Just an incredible piece of nature! One more...
Next stop - An Fear Gorta, a tea shop in Ballyvaughan, recommended by Chris and Judy - and thanks to them indeed, it was gorgeous. According to google, An Fear Gorta means either hungry man or hungry grass - something that's hungry...
So pretty, with a delicious-looking array of homemade cakes. I went with lemon and Alison had carrot and we had coffee. Just a perfect little stop!
Continuing on to Galway and we pass Dunguaire Castle, which was one I had wanted to see but didn't realise we would pass, so that was fortunate.
After that pit stop, on to Galway. I had thought Galway was a little town, like Killarney, but no, it's huge and there's traffic! After Betty's detour through the narrowest of roads earlier today when Alison was driving, now it was my turn for a detour - through a bus depot and out through what I thought was a green light, but cars came at me honking so I'm guessing I didn't have right of way!
We managed to find the carpark, which was tiny and there were a lot of cars in it. There was one guy valet-parking a car, he gestured to us where to park and thankfully Alison was driving, but then even she couldn't get it in there, so they did it for us, thank goodness, it was a tiny space and he put it in there with ease. Then it turned out he wasn't even the valet, he was the chef!
After checking in, we went for a wander down into town.
Cute town, even though it's not what we were expecting!
Tonight, the reason I chose this hotel - which is on the edge of town and not quite as nice as the others so far - but they have Irish trad music on a Thursday night.
So we went down, found a seat and watched and listened. We were joined by Jer, Oliver and Gregory, three guys from Dublin who are here for work, Sue, a Dubliner who lives here now, and Eleni, a Dutch student studying Irish music.
It was an amazing night, first there was a small group of musos and they just sit together and start playing...
Then more arrive, and more arrive, they might sit for a pint and a yarn, pick up their instrument and play a little or a lot.
Occasionally someone will sing, then they all sit and listen, generally. But if it's the old timer with the punt of Guinness, they all shut up - it's all about respect. Here's the old timer on the right, after he finished singing.
Oliver had a sing and there's Gregory and Jer...
The three of them managed to down a substantial amount of Guinness. Here is Sue and Eleni too.
Sue gave us all the information on the trad tradition - how it is passed down from generation to generation, the old timers teach the young ones, how someone in the circle will start a song and the others join in, they all know hundreds of trad tunes. There is a trad festival which sounds amazing. She also explains how the bodhran works, it's animal hide that is stretched as its played and it can be a beat or a brush. All so interesting and the music is great.
It was a fabulous night of Irish music and camaraderie. We had to tear ourselves away at midnight as we have an early start tomorrow. It was a right craic!
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