Galway or bust!

Headed off to Galway with a few stops planned along the way. The first was Adare, purportedly the prettiest village in Ireland. We were unimpressed- we have seen lots of pretty little villages- so just drove through with not even a backward glance. On to Bunratty Castle which was definitely worth stopping for as it had a village and animals attached as well as the original castle. The Irish Wolfhounds were huge, and the Shetland ponies were tiny! Just before leaving, I tried to souvenir some of the wildlife in the form of a green insect, maybe a small grasshopper, which flew into my open mouth and almost choked me. Luckily we were very close to the toilets at the time so I rushed in and gargled several times and managed to spit out most of its parts. Meanwhile Keeley was laughing so much she couldn't talk. At this moment Lorelle and Kiryn walked in, who luckily didn't have a camera handy to capture the looks on Keeley's and my faces.

The village at Bunratty

The Shetland ponies at Bunratty

Bunratty Castle

The Cliffs of Moher have become so commercialised.

Next stop, the Cliffs of Moher. I am going to have to steal a photo here as I stayed in the car and read. I think I have had enough adventure for one day. ( and I have seen these before, admittedly, it was a wet and windy day, and today is as perfect a day as you'll ever get in Ireland- warm AND sunny, so it was probably a completely different experience.)

On to Galway on the narrowest, bumpiest, curviest road in the world and the amazing thing is the amount of traffic it takes to the Cliffs- there were at least 14 buses and a couple of hundred cars when we were there in the late afternoon and the tourists were still coming which made driving even more of a challenge for Lorelle which she completed admirably and got us into Galway to St Jude's B&B unscathed.

The moonlike landscape around Burren

Kiryn and Dale headed off downtown to pick up fish and chips for dinner which was greatly appreciated by the rest of us, because if I had to walk anywhere, I would have gone hungry. The food revived us and we stayed up drinking and playing euchre and bloody mary till 11pm- our latest night yet- we are usually in bed before dark!

St Jude's is comfortable but we have been spoilt up till now. It has a lovely shower but no towel rails, and is quite basic accommodation for a B&B. The beds are all comfy which is the main thing and we all slept all night, well, at least we four girls did; the boys have their own room on an upper floor.