All good things have to pass.
Here we are now in Galway, or right outside of it, with all my bags packed and getting ready to go down for one last pint before early bed time. Our departure time from here is tomorrow morning at 5 am. Yaiks!
We were blessed today with the best weather so far. And it was the best timing for today's itinerary.
we left our hotel in Killarney just before 9, and headed north-west. The Killarney county greeted us with more lush scenery and changing weather. When we stopped at Adare, the rain was puring pretty strong, but by the time I walked through the visitor center and exited on the other side, it was dry again. That's how it is here, the rain and sun change very quickly.
Our next stop was Limerick. It is the 3rd biggest city in Ireland. It used to be a Viking city, because it is on river Shannon that goes into the ocean, but today it's a techy place with strong IT presence. It is different than other smaller places and Dublin in that it has blocks of streets, streets interest perpendicularly. They say that Manhattan got it's idea of designing the city in block from Limerick. Limerick is home to King James' Castle, who apparently was bit of a lazy king. On the outskirts of the city, we passed by Munster Rugby Stadium.
Limerick is also a type of poem, with 5 verses, 1st, 2nd, and 5th rime, and 2nd and 4th rime. So our tour guide asked us to think of a limerick and then share it in the evening with others. There were some creative lyrics shared in our group.
Next we entered into the Cork county and stopped to see the Bon Roite Castle (end of Roite River). This castle was actually lived in until 1950s. We did some sight-seeing, shopping, and I ate lunch at the Original Durty Nelly's pub, established in 1620!
After Ennis the scenery changed and we started seeing some limestone cliffs. Their layers are so thin that they make roof shingles out of them. The little town of Ennistymon has a beautiful river with limestone base passing through, and it used to be a spa town.
The coast region was next on the horizon, and in Lahinch we passed by a famous links golf course. I got a little mini course of golf history and lingo from Morris on this trip. Since we were now on the ocean, there were virtually no tree, except those people planted in their yards. There was too much salt in the air, and I suppose ground, for the trees we saw elsewhere to grow here. Not sure why there are no threes that are on other seashores.
The highlight of the day was at the Cliffs of Moher. We had a little surprise for Susan and her husband who were on this day celebrating their 32nd anniversary. We gathered at the steps overlooking the cliffs and sang in a circle for them, This Marriage. It was one of the songs we did at the concerts, and saw fitting for this occasion. It was another moving moment of music. Of course, we attracted some other onlookers, but we weren't going to sing any more since our time there was limited. I really wish we had at least another half an hour there to really enjoy it. The views were spectacular, and it would have been so peaceful to enjoy that majestic site without rushing. I feel like we just run from one side to the other to take pictures. I guess we had to keep up with the schedule.
The next stop was to see the burren: the limestone cliffs made from melting ice from the last ice age. It was interesting to find out that the ocean level used to be some 200m lower, and when the ice-age ended the temperatures were much warmer than they are now. It was obvious the ocean were lower, because some of the old house remains were virtually at the water edge.
For more little town, and castles on the way, and we arrived at Galway just before 6.
Tomorrow is a travel day. It was a busy week and we did see and visited a lot. I am glad I can go back and re-live all those experience through these pages. I hope to have my overall reflections on this trip posted some time when I get back to Austin.
Ireland is a beautiful country.
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