While on a two week vacation in Ireland & London, I kept track of what we did and my own thoughts in order to help me remember. Two weeks is a long time! I realized other might benefit from my experience, or at least enjoy my photos. This should not serve as the definitive guide to Ireland, just my own wandering trip.
Day 6 – Dingle, the Cliffs of Moher & Galway
We headed out of Dingle after another filling breakfast and made our way north. The difference between Irish roads and the roads back home is they are half as wide and twice as fast. (Seriously, think of any normal 2 lane road with traffic in both directions – then make it half as wide and give it a speed limit of 65 miles and hour!) Most of the time we are 25 to 50% slower than the speed limit and if I were driving I would go slower.
The drive out of Dingle was scenic, and this wasn’t the scenic route! We headed back through Tralee, which is a town I would consider spending time in, and caravanned with another car full of Americans. Every stop we made, they were there. It became a running joke.
We took a ferry across the river Shannon, to pass driving through Limerick, which was a nice stop in the drive. Then headed to the Cliffs of Moher. On the way, we passed Doonbeg, Gregg Norman’s $400-a-tee-time gold course. Jared wanted to see it, so we drove down the 2 mile drive way and took a look.
The amazing thing about Irish golf courses is they are wide open. Because they are a long the beach, they have to give pass-throughs to the locals to get to the water. This means, lucky people like us, can get a peak at the course. I think we will be checking out more courses as we make our way north.
We arrived at the Cliffs around 2. As expected, the place was full of tourist busses and the roads were clogged with tourists who can’t drive. (We were NOT among those that cannot drive, WE even thought they were too slow!)
The Cliffs were over all a disappointment. Due to a number of deaths from people being blown off the cliffs, in 2007 they added high walls and significantly cut down on where you can walk. This limited the view and the experience. I understand that people falling off the cliffs is bad, but I wanted to walk the cliff tops and we weren’t really able to.
Also, the cliffs we saw in Dingle, although not as large, were more picturesque and the whole coast is jaw-dropping cliffs. I’m not sure I would pay for the pleasure to see Moher again.
From there we had another hour and half drive to Galway. We made it here around 5, found a B&B and crashed for a two-hour nap. The plan had been to go to the Aran Islands tomorrow, but we are both tired from two big days, I think we are just going to relax and enjoy Galway.
We did head out on the town for some more pubs. We stopped into two places, one with a fiddler, a banjo and a guitar that was lively and jumping. The other with an orchestra of fiddlers, guitarists, accordions’ and flutists. By the time we left, there were more than 20 folks playing together. The place wasn’t full, but I think it was the best music I have heard so far.
