Europe Day 9: Ireland, Cliffs of Moher

Monday July 22, 2019

Another short night. We got up at 5 am to get ready and take the 5:40 am shuttle back to the airport. Our flight to Dublin boarded at 7 am. From our experience the night before, we knew it would be a 20 minute ride to the airport so we would be cutting it close. We got down to the lobby just before 5:30 am and met a couple from Jupiter, Florida. They too had an early morning flight but had decided not to chance it and had called a taxi. As luck would have it, a full size van showed up. We decided to split the cost of the taxi and all loaded up in the van. Yay.

Our flight on KLM from Amsterdam to Dublin was only an hour and 20 minutes. I dozed for a bit, then woke up to sounds of the beverage cart... and they gave us breakfast! God bless! I got a very filling egg salad sandwich on whole grain bread and coffee. Perfect. We landed shortly after that.

Off to our next adventure!

Quite honestly, I dozed off to sleep shortly after we got in our rental car. My husband was left dealing with driving a stick shift with his left hand and driving on the left side of the road in a right-sided steering wheel car. I woke up when he pulled into a gas station to get some coffee. He had slept through breakfast on the plane. The gas station was also a grocery store. He came out with a sandwich and a scone so I decided to get a wrap too. That would tide us over until we got to our next stop in Ballyvaughan, literally on the other side of the country, about 145 miles away.

Once we left the main highway it became apparent why you have to purchase the rental car insurance required by the rental car company. The narrow roads gave new meaning to the term "no shoulder." There were either stone fences or bush right up to the edge of the road. We had our lives flash before us multiple times when we encountered oncoming tour buses or cars hauling campers; they all passed inches from us!

As we neared the west coast we came to the Burren. From Wikipedia...

The Burren is a region of environmental interest primarily located in northwestern County Clare, Ireland, dominated by glaciated karst landscape. It measures, depending on the definition, between 250 square kilometres and 560 square kilometres. The name is most often applied to the area within the circle made by the villages of Tubber, Corofin, Kilfenora, Lisdoonvarna, and Ballyvaughan, and Kinvara in extreme south-western Galway, including the adjacent coastline.

The Burren

Our hotel for the night was at the Wild Atlantic Lodge in Ballyvaughan.

We arrived shortly before 2 pm so our room wasn't ready yet. We decided to eat lunch across the street at the Soda Parlour, then drove the scenic route on the Wild Atlantic Way to the Cliffs of Moher.

It was very scenic...

                                                                                              ... and it was very wild.

We got to the Cliffs shortly after 4 pm. I had read that this was an ideal time to go as most of the tour buses leave around 4 pm so it's not as crowded. Plus, sunset was supposed to be spectacular. Well, no spectacular sunset today. It was a gray misty day.

So... my husband would not go past this sign. The path had actually washed away some time past this sign but there was another clear trail past the sign as the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Center was only a small part of the Cliffs of Moher Coastal Walk, a trail which starts in the village of Doolin to the north and ends in the village of Liscannor to the south. The entire trail is 20 km in length. I would have loved to have hiked the whole thing but it's not the sort of thing my husband was up to, and he did not like the unprotected trail.

Anyhoos… I climbed over the rock barrier (along with hundreds of other people, some with their baby strollers - totally NOT kidding!) and continued on the trail for awhile.

It was very windy and I'm no good with selfies.

I was no where near the edge!

Misty gray sunset

Once we were done at the Cliffs we took the quicker less scenic route back to Ballyvaughan and checked into our room. It was spacious!

Nothing like the little shoebox in Paris

We could have each had our own bed!

Dinner was at Monks Seafood Restaurant and Bar.

So confession time... the main reason I booked our room in Ballyvaughan was that I read online somewhere about this restaurant and I had to go eat there! Monks did not disappoint. It was everything I imagined it would be.

I got the crab claws

We shared a chocolate torte for dessert

We stopped at the "snug bar" at our hotel before retiring for the night.

The Snug Bar

The bar was literally just below our hotel room. I was a little worried the noise would keep me up but that was not a problem. I pretty much passed out as soon as my head hit my pillow.

Another wonderful vacation day!