Galway, Ireland - Sept. 6th to Sept. 8th

Warning: long post ahead!! Becca and I had a long weekend in Galway together...before she headed home to the States yesterday. We had a blast, as the pictures show!! The weather was perfect, the warmest we've had here in Ireland all summer. I even got a little sunburned and I was so excited! We met up with a friend, William, for part of Friday and all of Saturday - between the three of us, we managed to take over 600 pictures!! So...if you think of it in those terms, I'm really not posting so many!! = )

GALWAY:

Standing in front of our bed and breakfast, which was gorgeous! The owner, Freddy, is French, and provided us with a lot of unexpected entertainment over the weekend! He also has a shiny black grand piano that I was dying to play - fortunately, Freddy was quite excited to let me play it and I'm still around. = )

The view of Galway Bay from our B & B

Eyre Square - was renamed Kennedy Memorial Park in 1965, in honor of President John F. Kennedy, who visited here shortly before his assassination in 1963

We actually spent a fair amount of time searching for this! - According to local legend, the mayor of Galway, James Lynch FitzStephen, hanged his son from the window of his home in 1493. Lynch's son had murdered a Spanish man in the care of the family. Apparently, this is the actual window from which the deed was done, set now in a stone facade at the side of St. Nicholas' Church.

Thursday night - Becca and I walked along Galway Bay...beautiful, isn't it?

ARAN ISLANDS: On Friday, Becca and I spent the day at Inishmore, the biggest of 3 islands that make up the Aran Islands. Irish is still spoken here on a daily basis and children grow up fluent in it, with English as their 2nd language.

Our ferry, docked at Inishmore

Irish Coast Guard - they decided to make a practice drop on our ferry!! It was actually very cool...and the guys were quite cute. = )

Here is a little video clip of the Coast Guard landing on our ferry.

Coast Guard standing on the back of our ferry

And this is how we toured the island - horse and trap, and our friendly local guide, Stephen!

You see walls like this all over the west of Ireland...it actually looks like a whole other world in comparison to where I am at with the Shorten's.

View of the island

View of Dun Aonghasa, one of the finest prehistoric fortresses in Europe (according to our tourist book!)

View of the island from the fortress

300 foot cliff!

Becca leaning over the side of the cliff - as you can see from the next couple of pictures, I wasn't quite so brave!

On Friday night, our friend William joined us. On Saturday, we got an early (semi-early, anyway!) start, and hit all sorts of places we found in our tour guide book.

DUNGUAIRE CASTLE:

When we first got there, it was quite foggy...by the time we left 15 minutes later, the fog had lifted. We thought it looked very spooky with the fog.

AILLWEE CAVE: This cave is a series of tunnels about 1 1/2 km long, and goes over 100 meters under the ground. It is located in the beginning of the Burren region of County Clare, where the landscape changes dramatically from the rest of. "The Burren" comes from an Irish word (boireann) that means "rocky land", which will make sense when you see the pictures. This cave is probably one of the most ancient in Ireland, but was only discovered in 1940.

View from the cave

Becca in the cave

Looking down at the bottom of the cave from the platform we were walking on

A stalactite - an icicle shaped mineral deposit, formed from the dripping of mineral rich water, in this case calcite from the limestone which the cave is formed from

William, Becca and I in the cave - One of the neatest things on the tour was that we experienced what total and complete darkness is. We were 100 meters underground, and the guide turned off his torch. Your eyes don't adjust, because there isn't any light to adjust to - it was a bit of an eery feeling.

POULNABRONE DOLMEN: This is the final resting place of some of the first farmers of the Burren...it is an ancient portal tomb that dates back to the Neolithic period, 3200 BC.! Now, moving on from the history lesson to the geography lesson - the Burren is a vast limestone plateau in northwest County Clare. Unique plant life thrives here, even in the harsh environment, taking root in the crevices of the limestone pavements.

The tomb

William took this picture because we looked "intelligent"! Uh, oh...what do we look like the rest of the time?!? = )

Limestone pavements - the whole area is like this...careful where you step!

Pretty amazing such beautiful things will grow here...

Serious work, this taking pictures of flowers business!

Looking "through" the tomb

CARRON CHURCH: As we were driving around (lost, looking for a fort!) we discovered the ruins of this church, and I requested a stop to explore. It was built around 1200, and served the largest of all parishes in Clare County until the 16th century.

Respectful? Probably not, but this sign made us all laugh, so prominently displayed in front of the church and the graveyard.

THE CLIFFS OF MOHER: In the sourthern part of the Burren, the limestone gives way to black shale and sandstone, which form the famous Cliffs of Moher. These cliffs are twice as high as the cliffs we saw on Inishmore, 650 feet. I took SO many pictures here...it was absolutely amazing. There were a ton of people there, but there was something about it that was very peaceful too. And can you believe how close to the edge I made it?? I'm quite proud of myself!

Looking south along the cliffs, before we walked across them. = )

Shopping!

A LATE dinner out before we headed back to Cork.