Where it all ends, I can't fathom my friends

Perfectly rainy day in Ireland.

We departed Galway, and drove through The Burren on our ways to the Cliffs of Moher.

On our way out of Galway, we got to see a hooker. Please note, a hooker is a boat. This is a family show, people.

Galway hookers are traditional fishing boats used in Galway Bay – they were designed specifically to withstand the strong sea winds. The boats are traditionally black (coated in pitch) with dark sails.

We meandered (by which I mean we drove like a bat out of ‘el on crazy narrow switchback roads) up through the Burren. It is in County Clare, and is part of a national park. Basically, it is an insane amount of limestone. It is specifically Carboniferous limestone, and formed around 350 million years ago. Burren stems from a Gaelic word, meaning ‘rocky place’ – and they aren’t kidding around. In this area, the limestone is fertile rock – tons of plants actually grow out of it because of the high mineral content. The area is full of bats (the 365 discovered caves help) as well as butterflies.

Those “hills” in the background are the limestone.

We then went on to Cliffs of Moher. We saw it as most people do – which means we couldn’t really see it at all, due to the fog. Google it to see it without fog – it’s gorgeous. It was still pretty great in the fog. I went up to the highest point for viewing, as well as out to Hag’s Head while Grandma stayed a little more dry in the Visitor’s Center. At the tallest point, it is a sheer drop of about 700′ into the Atlantic Ocean.

Hag’s head, the most southerly part of the Cliffs.

The cliffs. They’re there, I swear.

From there we headed out to Adare, which is called Ireland’s prettiest village. We wandered a bit, including through a beautiful old Catholic Church – Holy Trinity Abbey. The site started as a monastery in 1230, and was the only Trinitarian monastery in Ireland. I’m not entirely sure what that means; it was just on a sign by the door. I tried to look it up on Wikipedia but it was very religious-y so I stopped reading.

As we were driving, we also saw some “Irish Travelers” which is what you would probably think of as a gypsy. They literally were just set up in campers on the side of the road; our guide said they could stay in the same spot for months before anyone asks them to move on.

I also learned that Aunt Lorrayne used to be Lorraine. She changed it herself in late elementary school – there were too many other Lorraines in her class. If this family could just pick ONE NAME and stick with it, that would be great. Speaking of, Grandma was annoyed being Ruth, because there were other Ruths in her class as well, so they all went by Ruth and then the first initial of their last name. So, she was Ruth E. Well, there was another girl who actually went by Ruthie, so Grandma didn’t like that either. She briefly considered going by Maggie (short for Margaret) but there was a cartoon at the time about a drunk but jovial Irishman named Maggie and Jiggs, and she didn’t want to be connected to it. She said she wouldn’t mind going by Maggie now. I vote no – she already has too many names to keep track of.

Then we headed to Killarney, where we spend two nights. Dinner was here in the hotel, but we had about an hour between when we checked in and when dinner started. So, of course, Grandma said we should head to the bar.

Her first Guinness of the trip (that’s my Irish coffee next to her)

We had a good dinner – THREE different kinds of potatoes – and we discussed politics with our new Australian friends.

We finished the evening with a show called Gaelic Roots. Think Riverdance (a number of the performers were actually professionals in Riverdance). There was a harp, accordion, fiddle, drums, flute, singers, dancers…

We have no idea what this guy is playing – maybe some sort of bagpipe – but we liked it.

There was a lot of clapping and toe tapping, and if she had had one more Guinness, Grandma might have been up on the stage with them.