Ireland #16 The Cliffs of Moher

The Cliffs of Moher 

is another favorite place in Ireland.

Not just for us, but for many and we had

to take the 

Celtic Adventurers 

to the cliffs.

So with a bit of sadness we left our favorite

B & B and were on our way to view 

cliffs that drop 702 feet at their highest point

and stretch for 5 miles along the coast of 

western Ireland.

It was a cloudy day, but we could still view the cliffs.

There are times that it is very foggy and

 you can barely see the cliffs.

We have always been fortunate to be able to see them.

Here is the picture that my husband took on our first

trip to Ireland which he still sells.

Had to have a selfie of the 2 of us with the cliffs in the background.

Another view.

A picture that Dave took of our group.

It was extremely windy!

As you can see here, poor Roxie was having 

a bit of trouble with her hair.

Here are Jane and Michael.

Not so much trouble with their hair.  LOL!

This time, we let someone else take a picture for us.

A look in another direction.

This is O'Brien's Tower.

This was built by Cornelius O'Brien in 1835.

He was ahead of his time, believing that tourism

would benefit the local economy ans bring the people out of poverty.

This tower was built for the purpose of viewing the surrounding 

area by tourists. From this tower you can see for miles on

a clear day. I'm guessing ole Cornelius knew what he 

was doing.  While we were at the cliffs, there were 

thousands of others there too.

Here is a view looking down toward one of the beaches.

That small pointed "rock" is separate 

from the rest of the cliffs.

The waves crashing against it are quite remarkable.

Another selfie.

When we were at the cliffs the last time (about 10 yrs ago)

there may have been some warning signs like this one,

but there weren't as many walls blocking the cliffs.

I didn't get a picture of the area, but there is a large flat area 

of rock that goes right to the cliffs edge.

There are slate walls blocking the area and much of the cliffs

off from access.  When we were here last, these areas

were not blocked off.  In fact my husband and the kids laid down

on their bellies and scooted up to the edge to look over.

I was to afraid of heights to do it, it made me nervous just watching.

At that time there were also groups of kids that were running along

the walkways that were a matter of feet from the cliff edges.

AND there were no walls or guard rails.

I'm so glad they put some up.

You can do quite a bit of walking at the cliffs and

I wasn't up for too much.  I did what I could

and then went to the visitors center to wait for the 

others to come back.

Here's a selfie with a very cool wood sculpture

outside the center.

And the sculpture without me blocking it.

There is so much in this sculpture about the area,

I wish I would have taken more pictures showing more detail,

but there were others waiting to take their own selfies.

I was so glad that I had come back to the center.

I sat and people watched for a while, then the sky started to

look ominous.

I found a spot to stand near a door with an overhang and 

shot a bit of video.

If you watch it, you can see the waves of rain coming across.

It blew in very quickly, it was over cast and a few minutes later

the skies were turning a very dark gray.

Dave and Jane had continued out along the cliffs

to take pictures of the rain coming in.

The others had come back to the visitors center.

Guess it was pretty wild out there near the cliffs.

It cleared up pretty quick and we were off to our next

adventure.  Luckily the skies cleared pretty well

as we drove on to Doolin where we ate by the roadside.

It was pretty cold out there, so I ended up wrapped in a blanket 

in the car for my lunch.
Here are some pictures that I took along the drive.

Here are the cliffs from a distance.

Jane and Roxie at our lunch spot

After lunch we were off to The Burren.

The Burren literally means rocky place and that is

so fitting for this area.
This is one of only 2 pictures I took,

the entire area looks pretty much the same.

All "limestone pavement" for miles and miles.

There is very little soil in The Burren, but where 

there is soil it is very fertile.

I do wish I had taken a couple pictures of the mountains,

just to show you. They are literally mountains

of rock like what is in this picture.

Once we were through The Burren,

we were off to Galway.

More about that in my next post

"On to Galway"

Roaring 20s Wedding.

My nephew's Roaring 20s Wedding was
last Saturday.

Everyone was encouraged to wear appropriate

clothes if we cared to.

I found the greatest dress for my Mom!

It was probably at least 20 yrs old, but still 

had the original tags on it.

I got it at a thrift shop for $6.99 and it fit her perfectly.

It was perfect for a Grandmother of the groom.

It had a kind of dropped waist look and the front 

had a great design of sequins.

I don't have a full length picture of her,

but here is one that I took of her at the reception.

She'll be 90 next month, isn't she beautiful?!?!

Here is picture of her with the hair clip I made

for the 20s theme.

Here is a closer picture of the clip.

She loved it and it matched with her dress beautifully.

Here I am wearing the head piece I made.

It was quite the project.

I had put the feathers etc together, but it wouldn't 

stay in my thin and fine hair, so I decided

to do a wrap of gold braiding and pearls to go around my head.

That worked great and it stayed on all night for me.

Hear is my head piece,

a little worse for wear, but it held up fairly well through

the reception.

And what a great time we had at the reception.

Below are a few fun pictures from the photo booth

they had.

These 1st 3 are of me with my kids.

These 2 are me with my daughter and her boyfriend

and my son and his girlfriend.

These last 2 are my brother, sister in law and

niece and nephew.

This nephew is the groom.

Just about everyone got into the act with this photo booth.

Even the ones that hate having their picture taken.

So much fun!

Thanks for stopping by today.

I hope I gave you a little chuckle today.

Ireland #15 A Pink Elephant and This Little Piggy

After our visit to Kinsale we were ready

for a nice dinner out.

We had to take some pictures before we went

Just because everyone looked so nice.

Jane and Michael on the patio.

Ed gets silly in the garden.

Ed and Roxie in the garden.

Ed and Michael

the "two dudes"

The Pink Elephant 

was recommended by Noreen so that's where we headed.

The views were beautiful from the restaurant.

If you were sitting on this lawn on 

May 7, 1915 

and were looking out at this view

you would have seen the sinking of the 

Lusitania.

A German U-boat torpedoed and sank RMS Lusitania.

The Lusitania was a British ocean liner en rout to Liverpool, England

from New York.

Of the more than 1900 people aboard,

more than 1100 of them perished in this tragedy.

Luckily it is now a beautiful, peaceful sight.

The restaurant owner took this nice picture of our group.

One of the very few with all of us in the picture.

We were so glad we took Noreen's recommendation.

The food was very good.

Roxie started with a salad.

I started with Cream of Asparagus soup.

I can't speak for that salad, but the soup was excellent!

I had this amazing chicken dish.

A couple of them had duck.

Dave had a liver dish, I tasted that and it was

fabulous.

Ed had monk fish.

And our dessert, I don't remember what they 

called it, but it was a meringue with berries and cream.

To die for!

The service was wonderful and the owner was

very friendly.

He is quite a photographer and has several of his pictures around

the restaurant.  What a lovely man.

After a fabulous meal we were treated to a

 beautiful sight in the sky.

The clouds were spectacular and that sun

with the rays shining through?

Stunning!

Then we were on to Timoleague.

It was what they call "festival week" 

and there is some kind of attraction or function every 

evening in the village and tonight it was 

pig races.

Yes!  I did say pig races!

They had the big bad wolf and a pig that danced.

Here's a video of the "Minions" the wolf and the pig

entertaining the crowd while we wait for the races.

Sorry about the quality of the video, I had to hold the 

camera above my head and hope for the best.

Here is a little clip of one of the races.

These pigs are about 3 months old and belong to a 

local farmer.  

The pigs ran from one end of the main street of the 

village to the other end.

There were a few races down and then back up.

There was a huge crowd.  

Apparently this is one of the attractions every year.

There was a show afterward that we didn't stay for,

we'd had a long day and wanted to get back to our 

B & B.

We did stop to take some pictures along the way of

this building.

Unfortunately, I don't remember what this is.

I didn't write it in my journal and can't find it online.

But it was beautiful.

Here's my Timoleague selfie,

Kind of eerie with that background, don't ya think?

I saw this phone box on the way to the car 

and had to take a picture of it. 

I love their phone boxes!

Then we were "home" for the night.

We all gathered in the guest sitting room for

 a drink and a bit of socializing with 

Joe and Noreen.

Check out this sitting room,

who wouldn't want to spend a little time there?

It was so comfy and welcoming.

The next morning I took a picture of Dave with Noreen

before we left.  She and Joe made us feel like old friends.

We will be back to Kilcatten Lodge one day,

it was definitely our favorite of all the

places we stayed.

High on our recommendation list.

Next I'll tell you about 

The Cliffs of Moher 

and our adventures there.