Aran Islands & Cliffs of Moyer

Tuesday, July 02, 2019
Galway, County Galway, Ireland
We had breakfast in the very lovely dining room at St. Jude's B & B, chatting a bit with the owners twins Sean & Donal Gallagher, before heading out on today's adventure.
We booked our first bus tour on this trip, an all day tour to Aran Islands & the Cliffs of Moher cruise.  These locations have been featured in several movies such as Harry Potter, Princess Bride & Leap Year.  We booked with Lally Tours - recommended by the Ireland tourist office (they were fabulous!) when we arrived in Galway last night.  Our driver today was Niall & our tour guide was Mike.  Both were wonderful, fun, funny & informative. 
We took a ferry with Mike for the 1 hour run to Innis Oirr, the smallest of the 3 Aran Islands, total area 3 sq miles.  The lovely big Cable knit sweaters we associate with Ireland come from Aran Islands.  It's a slower pace of life there, a throw back to the old days, but now a little more commercialized with the arrival of tourists.
The terrain of the island was rock, sandstone with some pasture tossed in.  The beach near the ferry dock had fine sand while the other side of the dock was all huge rocks.  Lots of rock in Ireland!  The locals still use horse drawn carriages but also large tractors to move supplies around the island.  We took a short "comfort break", stopping at Tigh Ruairi mid way up the hill.  We had the Seafood Salad and the Potato Leek soup with wheaten bread, and of course a pint. Quick but excellent lunch! 
Next we headed out on a horse and carriage tour through the island - normally we probably wouldn't do something so 'touristy' but it was the best way to see the island in the time we were there. Other options were to cycle or walk the island.  Oliver and his horse drawn carriage took us all over the island telling us about the island, it's people & sharing some stories along the way. 300 people live on Innis Oirr with about 300 cattle and some sheep. We could see the Cliffs of Moher in the distance.
Back on board our ferry which is now taking a full boat load of tourists to see the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland's most visited natural tourist attraction, with over a million visitors every year.  The Cliffs run about 8 kms along County Clare's Atlantic coast and are 700 feet up to the highest point.  We will see the Cliffs from the water and the water from the Cliffs (that's tomorrow).  The expanse of the Cliffs was further demonstrated by how tiny the people walking along the top of the cliffs appeared from our view on the water.  This site is a definite must see on any trip to Ireland and any pictures we took truly do not do it justice.

Our bus driver Niall met us when the ferry docked in Doolin, about 70 kms or about 95 minutes south of Galway.  On the trip back we travelled through and stopped to check out "The Burren".  This is an amazing huge landscape of glacial era limestone - they say it's the best place to experience what it's like to walk on the moon.  It is very interesting to see the flowers growing between some of the rocks.  During one of the occupations of Ireland, a make work project was devised on the Burren and stone walls were built, up where nobody would ever have any use for them.

We made a whimsical stop next at the Leprechaun Cathedral - a wee stone building along the side of the road with a small well of very cold drinking water.  Of course behind the Leprechaun Cathedral was a fairy tree.  They say these trees are to be respected and not messed with....meaning roads have been rerouted so as not to hurt them.  Across from the well, was what Mike described as a cottage.  This stone building, would be two stories, withe the animals living in the bottom and the people on the second floor.  The roof was thatched and up to 14 people would have lived in this small dwelling.  The only occupant around today, was a donkey(who invited us for a breakfast of pancakes ;) ).
 We made a last comfort stop in Ballyvaughn. We decided to try the "Golden Fried Fishcakes" with a pint and a glass of wine at Monk's Seafood Restaurant & Bar.  Fishcakes were so good we ate one before taking the picture!

It was a great tour and nice as we were a small group of 11.  We have seen many, many large tour buses since we arrived 10 days ago, many loaded down with lots of tourists.  Service was great on the tour with pick up & drop off service right at our B&B.

We got back just after 6:30 pm and decided to do one of the things we like everytime we travel.....try out the local McDonald's.  We didn't notice any local influences on the menu except the Cadbury "Flake" bar McFlurry.  We had our burgers, which were like at home, but more expensive!

Just a nice walk down around the harbour then back to St. Jude's to get ready to continue down the "Wild Atlantic Way' tomorrow!
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