Tour to the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland

The day after going to the Inis Mor island, we took a 10 hour tour on a bus (this was the beginning of my 'bus butt', to the Cliffs of Moher.  These cliffs are over 700 feet high, sheer rock walls going into the sea.  The paths along the tops of the cliffs are fenced with either chain link of slabs of rock over 3 feet high, to keep people from the edges which are crumbling and falling into the Atlantic.  Sixteen people fell off (or jumped off) the cliffs last year, and so far, 6 this year. Suicide is a big problem in Ireland.  There are signs saying if you need someone to talk to, there's a number to call.  That was scary. The cliffs stretch over 5 miles along the Atlantic.  The sound track to the Cliffs are sea gulls, crying.  they sound like hurt puppies.  On the way to the Cliffs, we went through the Burren, a large area of flat limestone slabs, criss-crossed by cracks.  It's like pavement, and stretches for miles and miles.  In that area are 90 tombs, dolman monuments, and ring forts .  In all the cracks, grasses and flower grow, so while you'd think it would be bare, it's actaually quite colorful.  We also stopped at the ruins of Dunguaire Castle, a portal tomb called The Dolman, the High Crosses at Kilfenora and we ate a good lunch at a tour stop. These cliffs have been featured in several movies, Ryan's Daughter, Princess Bride and Harry Poter and the Half-Blood Prince.  Even at low tide, there's no beach to walk along like they did in Ryan's Daughter.  They are the most popular tourist attraction in Ireland, and the reason I wanted to go to West Ireland, basing ourselves in Galway.  I had to choose between seeing the cliffs or Newgrange, near Dublin, but as you'll see in the next blog, we got to Newgrange anyway.  Even though it was a long day, lots of hours on the bus, and such, it was very much worth it.  I would go again in a heartbeat.  Photos in next blog.

Aran Islands, Inis Mor

Ferry to Inis Mor, top level

Stone wall, they are everywhere.  

ruins on Inis Mor, of course everything is made of stone.

Outside of the stone fort, Dun Aonghasa, built in 2000 BC by the Celts

cliffs on Inis Mor, 300 feet hight, only fence at the cliffs 

Steffi sitting near the edge of the cliffs, very carefully

looking the other way along the cliffs

Aran Islands off Ireland first tour

Off the west coast of Galway are the Aran Islands, a chain of three small islands.  Our first tour was to Inis Mor, the largest of the three.  First a 40 min bus ride to the ferry docks. then a ferry took us from Galway Bay to Inis Mor.  The island is 9 miles long and 2 miles wide made of barren limestone rock, population about 800.  It is one of the rockiest places I've ever seen.  The fields are cleared by stacking the rocks into low fences, and there are millions of them.  Everywhere you look, dark green fields surrounded by rock fences.  The older fences are covered in vines and low shrubs. They raise sheep and cattle.  We stopped at Dun Aonghasa for a couple of hours, and walked up (very up) to the top of the cliffs where a spectaclar semi circular celtic stone fort sits overlooking the Atlantis.  It's made of black stacked stones.  The cliffs are even more spectacular, over 300 feet high, rugged, beautiful.  There are no fences or baricades to block a person at the edge of the cliffs, so we edged our way to a safe distance and watched the surf break against the cliffs. It was breathtaking.  This fort is thought to be one of the oldest in Ireland, and was probably built in a D shape closer to the cliffs, but that part has fallen into the sea.  It's now a huge half circle of dry stones, with stairs, walkways and an open arena in the center.  Around the back side are concentric circles of stacked stone.  Very impressive and worth the strenous climb up there.  We also saw from a distance the Lighthouse.  And the Seven Churches ruins although there are only two churches with partial walls still standing.  We think churches were built on the ruins of other churches, seven in all.  Gaelic or Irish is still spoken here, and all signs are in both Gaelic and English.  In fact, in all of Ireland, all signs are in both languages, and all public announcements on the trains are in both languages.  It's not a Latin based language, and it's not intuitive. Almost none of the words in English come from Gaelic.  People come to the islands to study the Irish language, and there are summer schools just for that purpose.  At the bus stop to return to the ferry are several nice shops, and the one with stone carvings was visited by Aidan Quinn an hour or so before we got there.  We looked for him on the 5PM ferry, but either he had an excellent disguise or he took the puddle jumper for 49 Euro back to the mainland.  Weather was beautiful, no rain, dramatic clouds over the ocean, bright sunlight.

Finding the book, Codex, that I've been looking for since I got to Germany

You may recall in an early blog, my luck at finding The Magician King by Lev Grossman at the Frankfurt main train station, and ordering later, at a small local bookstore, his other two books, The Magicians and The Codex, his first book.  The Magicians came in the next day.  More than a month goes by, I go to the bookstore every few days, The Codex is still on order.  We leave for Ireland.  On one of the first days in Galway, we are walking along the street where all the musicians play, and there are a lot of bars and restaurants, and shops.  Some high end shops, a book store, some cheap trinket shops for souveniers.  We go into the book store, I ask if they have The Codex, no, but they can order it, 10 days or so to get it in.  I say no thanks, we're traveling.  We go in and out of the trinket stores full of baseball caps, key chains, post cards, plastic jewelry, bins of tumbled stones, I'm sure you know the sort of stores they are.  And they're tiny.  But we finally go into a larger one that has big tables piled high with books.  They are the publisher's slush books.  Of course we always look at the books.  I'm across the store from Steffi, and she calls me.  Mom, what's the name of the book you're looking for?  She fills in the answer, The Codex.  I say yes, still busy with postcards.  She says, well, I think this is it.  I go over to her.  There on the table are probably ten or so copies of The Codex, normally 5.99 Euros, marked down to 3.99 Euros.  I almost cry.  There's my book.  I have an urge to buy them all, but refrain and just take one.  Another 'who would have ever thought'.  I read the book while we were in Ireland.  Very good, I loved it.  Of course, when I got back to Frankfurt and went into the local bookstore, The Codex had come in while I was gone, and I felt obligated to buy it.  12.Euros.  So now I have two copies.  Life is good.  I am happy.

Galway photos day one

Sitting outside at Corrib Village.  It didn't rain on us one time in Ireland. Lots of sun.  

Glaway is on a huge bay, and the Atlantic Ocean.  Lots of water. Lots of clouds, no rain.

On the first tour. someplace.

Dinner first night.  Great Italian restaurant with candles in Glaway.  

Park art in Eyre Square, Galway, where all the city buses come and go from. 

Wall art in Galway on the side of a building. No name, no artist was named either. 

The Corrib River, a rushing wide body of water, emptying in the sea.  There are life bouys all along the river with instructions not to steal them, or someone may drown.  

First of Irish Blogs

You may have wondered what I've been doing since my last post June 4th....well, we left on the 9th for Ireland and came back on the 14th.  I have now what I call 'bus butt' when means all those hours on the tour buses has taken its toll.  The bus seats are narrow and hard, just not shaped like I am. Today, I walked along the Main River to work out the kinks.  It's overcast, will probably rain later.  There are hundreds of ducks along the walking path, parent ducks and baby ducks, and a few swans who think they are foster parents of some of the ducklings.  The swans will attack and hiss, and so will some of the mother ducks.  I took my straw hat and when they run at me, I bat at them with my hat.  I was looking for one of the many Saturday flea markets, but wasn't successful in finding one.  It will take several blogs to cover Ireland.  But as a recap in this one, we flew Ryan Air which was only 40 Euro each round trip, but they charge a lot if you check any luggage so we each took a backpack for 5 days of traveling.  The trip was easy both ways.  Once in Ireland, we landed at Knock Airport, sort of in the middle of the Island and in the middle of nowhere, we took a bus to Galway.  A 1.5 hour trip.  Not bad.  In Galway, we stayed at a Youth Hostle called Carrib Village.  The river that runs through Glaway is the Carrib River.  We took the bus out to the Village.  Our room was on the second floor, clean and spare as it is a college dorm room.  Shared bath, kitchen and lounge down the hall with a t.v.  Steffi watched the soccor games on it when she could.  I think Germany is doing well in the playoffs.

We started our tours on day two.  Three tours in three days, rested on day 4 and came home on day 5.  More later.  Photos on separate page.

Paris June 2012

Just a picture that I like from someplace where we ate.

The bus to Paris.  It's early in the AM.

Me and our host, Mariella.

The Eiffel Tower and the Seine River. 

The Golden Flame.