But Wait, There's Moher!

Great adventures were had today! I went on my first day trip to different parts of Ireland. The trip included stops at The Burren, Doolin Pier and Village, The Cliffs of Moher, and Lahinch Beach! Unfortunately, my camera battery died before the day was over. Fortunately, it was at the END of our time at the Cliffs, and I am going to visit Lahinch Beach on another trip later on! We had a GORGEOUS day, weather-wise. It was about 50 degrees and NEVER RAINED. I know what you are thinking, that never happens here, but honestly it was sunny the entire day! Luck o' the Irish, I guess! 

The Burren limestone

First up was The Burren. I honestly had NO idea what that was, I was just on the trip to see the Cliffs. But as we were getting on the bus, we were handed nifty pieces of paper that had information about all the places we were stopping/seeing. So, I found out what The Burren was. Turns out, it is a really beautiful landscape that covers about 250 square km of land in County Clare. It is what's known as a "karst" landscape: limestone plateaus that are chemically weathered by rainwater. The resulting effect is enormous areas of rock with crevices and dips throughout, and moss growing through the cracks. It was amazing to explore and hop along the huge rocks. Because it wasn't raining, the rocks were dry for the most part, which made them even easier to walk across. These rocks are even more amazing, as they are incredibly old. They were actually left behind from glaciers after the last Ice Age! It is protected land, so remarkably well preserved and wild. 

Poulnabrone Dolmen

We walked right up to an old tomb, called the Poulnabrone Dolmen (portal  tomb) that is estimated at about 5000 years old! I love this kind of stuff, the history and the beauty, so this was like heaven. We spent over an hour exploring the landscape before we loaded the buses back up (there were three coach buses full of students from UL).







We then stopped briefly at a dock on Galway Bay. It was a beautiful little place to take photos, and a wonderful day for it. We had some fun and walked on the wall of the pier, and wandered up and down it. The views were spectacular, and the water was calm and blue. 

They had pretty good food

The next stop was in Doolin Village and Pier. We ate lunch at a cute little pub, called O'Connors Pub. The food was really good, and much needed late into the afternoon. Before we ate, we spent a little time at Doolin Pier, where you can take a ferry to the famous Aran Islands. We took pictures off the end of the pier, and since it was low tide, we were able to explore some of the tide pools. 

One of my favorite pictures so far!

After lunch, we finally headed to the Cliffs of Moher. I now understand why we did this last. It was simply breathtaking. The cliffs reach 700 ft above the Atlantic Ocean, and are covered in moss. They were simply amazing! We joked that, had the cliffs been in the USA, there would have been 10 foot fences on the edge around, and no one would be allowed to go near them. Thankfully, they aren't in the US, so you could literally walk right up to the edge (not that I did, the exposed edges made me extremely nervous, especially with the wind that always blows from them). We spent almost two hours walking along the edges of the cliffs, and I took a lot of pictures. For the rest of the day, I was thankful for the sun, but actually when first taking pictures of the cliffs, the sun was a bit of an inconvenience. It was right above the cliffs and therefore cast a shadow when trying to photograph the Cliffs. Eventually the sun was low enough that I could snap a few good ones! 

Classic Cliffs of Moher shot

We were all pretty exhausted at this point, and it was dusk and getting cooler. We still made one more stop, at Lahinch Beach. This beach is popular and internationally known as a great surf spot in Ireland. It was pretty, but by the time we got there it was just cold and we were too tired to appreciate it fully. Thankfully I am going back on another day tour, and I will take pictures of it then!