What we saw:
– Cliffs of Moher
– Waterfall in Doolin
– Cave from Harry Potter
– Irish Coast Guard
– Smithstown Castle
– Leamaneh Castle
– Sheep
– Caherconnell Stone Fort
– Hole of Sorrow
– Tesco
– Pay to use public restroom
– Coad Church (ruins)
What we experienced:
– Communal breakfast with guys from London, New Zealand, and Ireland
– Eating Shamrocks
– My 15 minutes (hopefully more) of fame
– Crazy drivers/One lane roads
– Sun in Ireland
– Atlantic wind
– Paying to park to shop for groceries
So.much.walking. We have done so much walking since we’ve gotten here, and our legs/feet are yelling at us tonight! But we also saw soo much today. The weather was perfect with sunny skies and no rain at all. A bit windy part of the day, but I was typically comfortable in a t-shirt walking around.
The day started out eating breakfast with all of the other guests in the B&B. Quite strange, but the guy from New Zealand was pretty chatty. He said he lived in Indianapolis for a couple of years, and he had been to St. Louis many times. In particular, he remembers drinking at Trainwreck which I thought was so random since we eat there quite a bit.
Then we were on to Doolin to pick up our tickets for the ferry tour of the Cliffs of Moher and to see the puffins. We walk in there and I give them my name. He calls down to the pier to tell them we are checking in (however in hindsight, we think this was a ploy), and after he gets off the phone this conversation occurs:
Pier guy: You know you were famous for a bit around here, yes?
Us: Oh haha, yeah, I’m not that Jessica Ennis
Pier guy: Well we just weren’t sure, you know
For those that don’t know, there is a famous track star from the UK that won gold in the 2012 Olympics named Jessica Ennis. So I was almost famous. I also have a feeling this won’t be the last time this happens during this trip. Unfortunately, the waves were too rocky to go, and our tour was cancelled. But I was quite entertained/flattered/feeling famous for a bit!
Next stop was the actual Cliffs of Moher. B.e.a.utiful. We did quite a lot of hiking around there, taking tons of pictures. Of course, we had to scout out the cave that was filmed for the sixth Harry Potter movie. You know, where Dumbledore and Harry go to retrieve one of Voldemort’s horcuxes. The only scene filmed outside the UK. No big deal. After geeking out (okay, me geeking out), we grabbed something to eat there which brings us to eating shamrocks. We grabbed a random bag of chips off the shelf and it turns out they are seasoned with actual shamrocks grown here in Ballinskelligs. Chips were really good too!
The rest of the day consisted of driving around on these ridiculously small roads almost being killed by all the tour buses storming their way through these roads. Some of these roads had just barely enough room for two cars to pass, and some of the roads had barely enough room for our car to go through. Luckily we only came across a couple of other cars and we were able to find a ditch to pull into to allow passing. All in all, a very productive and fun day together.
And now the good stuff!
Cliffs of Moher (and Crystal Cave from HP). Is this real life? Sooooo beautiful.
Chips sprinkled with Shamrocks!
Ruins of the Leamaneh Castle
Hole of Sorrows – This tomb was built around 2000 years before the Gaza Pyramids. Nobody knows who is buried there, but there were multiple men, women and children bones found.
