Our late start this morning, possibly due to oversleepage (sorry, Pallab and Jenn!), was countered by some delicious homemade chocolate chip pancakes (so thoughtful, Pallab and Jenn!). After gathering ourselves, we packed into the car and made our way to the Cliffs of Moher, The Burren and the city of Galway. The drive took us about 2 hours.
The first stop was The Burren. Windy roads to the extreme. This area of Ireland was once a seabed when the country was by the equator before the whole continental drift thing happened. In a game of rock, paper, scissors here, rock would always win. White, grayish rocks of all shapes and sizes, flat and round, covered the countryside, the mountains, and the fields where the cows and sheep grazed. We pulled off to see the Poulnabrone Portal Tomb, something that has been around since the beginning of the Bronze age and is probably the oldest man-made thing we will ever see in our lives. The tomb's surroundings were mostly flat rocks and grass – it almost seemed like we were on another planet.
After weaving through the roads of The Burren, we made our way to the Cliffs of Moher. Spectacular sites. The sound of the ocean. 700 foot drop offs. And a view of the Atlantic that disappears off into the mist (it was mostly overcast and somewhat rainy today). I was quite thankful for the walls that had been installed for our viewing protection. Fantastic photo opps here.
The next and final stop of the day was Galway. We arrived around 5:30pm and hungry. As we have done with every town and city, we parked and walked. Galway was different than the others we had seen. It had a lot more pedestrian-only streets lined with shops, restaurants and pubs; it seemed to be a college town. People just off work spilled out of the pubs and others wandered around doing the same thing we were, perusing the restaurants and menus. We settled on McDonagh's. It was an interesting place. The restaurant was split in two – half was takeaway and the other was more of a sit down situation. We decided to sit down and enjoy our meal, as the restaurant menu seemed more extensive than the takeaway. Our meals consisted of baked cod with broccoli and a curry sauce, chips (of course), fish stew, fried cod, mussels and crab meat wrapped in smoked salmon. Everything was mmmm good. The fist bite of the baked cod took me back to my Mom's chicken divan. Delicious. The chips with vinegar were ok...I still think we should have snuck some old bay into our checked luggage...
After dinner we headed over to a pub to find some live traditional Irish music. What fun! Three guys sitting on couches in the front of the pub just playing. A few people close by were bouncing around to the beat. The rest of the pub was packed with people drinking and carrying on. As we stood around and enjoyed the music, a guy next to us struck up a conversation with us. He was from Australia. He said at firsthe had me pegged for a French woman and DJ, an Irish man with his reddish beard and disheveled hair. Since I couldn't pull off the French accent, I told him we were from DC. We chatted a bit more before we left.
Before we got back to the car, we stopped into another pub just to check it out. As we entered, a famous Irish song came on (I am assuming it is famous) and everyone started singing. It was awesome. I wish I had known the words, so that I could have joined in.
Galway. Awesome. And this is going to be a theme for this vacation – wish we could have stayed a little longer...
cute but where are the pics!!!
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