A Sunny Day in Ireland

I awoke today to a very strange sound...  seagulls squawking away - NOT roosters, but seagulls!  lol.  And it wasn't even 5 a.m. yet.  I guess that's what you get when you are on an island.  I couldn't go back to sleep so I got up and got ready for my day.  There was an odd contraption in the bathroom that was supposed to run the shower, but none of us could figure out how to work it, so I just took a quick splash bath!

David and I walked down to a small grocery store to get some water for our trip as the sun shone brightly above us!   We also decided to pick up some cheese, meats, and rolls so we could do a brot side later during our drive.  Diane and Brian got up and got ready and we went to the Good Food Store for breakfast.

 Sausage rolls, a chocolate croissant and a cup of mocha was just amazing.  We then grabbed all of our luggage from our room and headed out to flag down a taxi to take us to the airport to get our rental car.

 We got a snazzy black BMW series 3...  stick shift with the steering wheel on the WRONG side!  Brian took on the task of driving and within no time he was a pro.  We departed from Dublin around 9:00 and off to Galway we went.  The countryside was absolutely breathtaking!  Green, green grass with rock walls lining the edges of every field.  Ivy, flowers, and moss were growing profusely out of the rocks, and the lush vegetation was everywhere.  Having control of our own day, we stopped time and time again.  A unique cemetery, an old church, a castle (Dunguaire - where Di and I are shown) was built in 1020 A.D.! ), any interesting thing that caught our eye stopped our car.

 Our goal of a ferry ride out to the Aron Islands did not come to fruition due to missing the last ferry from Galway.  But we would not be dissuaded from our goal of visiting the magical Cliffs of Mohr - yes, those amazing cliffs from the movie The Princess Bride. It took many hours to traverse our way down tiny, skinny, road paths but when we finally arrived, the view took our breath away. Our drive to Kinvarra to our next Airbnb was lovely and we met our amiable hostess Karen.  It seems she is a bit of a Utube phenom...  check out Sweet Dreams Banjo ! We drove in to town to Merriman's Restaurant for dinner.  Our meals were unbelieveable. On the drive home, the sun began to set (at 9:40 p.m.!) the sun was a weirdly beautiful blood red.