Cliffs of Mohr and Doolin

The weather Sunday morning was less than inspiring. I had a tour to the cliffs and the first bus driver did not seem convinced we would see anything.  :(

When we got to the bus station, Mick D, the driver from the tour on Friday came on board, spotted and got me put on his bus. And I got the best seat in the bus - the one at the very front next to the driver, usually used by the tour guide! The view from the front window was great. (I was also first off the bus but unfortunately had to be the last on. It was a very cold day!) It did lead to some confusion at the beginning as people thought I was the guide. And I knew nothing! 

The first stop was Dunguaire Castle. The fog made for some very mysterious and dramatic photos.

Through the fog

Dunguaire castle

Frosty

Castle up close

fog on the water

Irish cottage

Susie the sheep, bus mascot

Thankfully the weather cleared up and for the rest of the day we had clear skies. The temperature didn't improve much but at least it was sunny.

Fog clearing.

The next stop was Poulnabrone Dolmen, a portal tomb. This was is over 5000 years old (old than the pyramids). It was the final resting place of the bones  of the people in the area. They found the bones of 33 people in there when they excavated.

Dolmen

We also stopped at Kilfenora Cathedral and the 7 high crosses. Most of these have been lost (mainly due to weather erosion) but these have been saved and are stored under a perspex roof. They are from around the sixth century I think.

In Ireland, if a woman got to 25 and was still unmarried, her parents would turn to a match-maker to get her gone. There is still a match match-maker here and in September they have a month long (well 6 weeks which apparently a month in Ireland) festival of love, where singles from all over come in the hope of finding love.

We stopped off at Doolan for lunch. The pub and food was very nice but a bit busy. There wasn't much to see there but there is a fabulous chocolate shop. I brought some amazing rocky road and some orange and dark chocolate fudge. None of it survived to leave Ireland. 

The main stop of the day was the Cliffs of Mohr. They have been used in the Princess Bride and one of the Harry Potter films. They are all very dramatic. 

These were everywhere and made it more dramatic!

The cliffs

You can walk along the cliffs in either direction. To the right is O'Brien's Tower on Hag's Head. You can pay to go up but the view is pretty good from the ground so I didn't bother. 

Looking to O'Brien's Tower

The tower.

View from in front of the tower

The stack

Sunset

The last stop was at the Mini-cliffs (it's real name) just in time to catch the last of the sunset.

Mick dropped me back at my hotel (which was on the way to the station anyway). I had some time to relax and warm up again before back out and into town for a meal at a lovely little restaurant called Tosnu. If anyone is in the area, it is worth it and will be hard to get a reservation at before long. The meal was lovely.

Galway

I spent Saturday around town. Despite being there during the middle of the day, the sun did not get very high so a lot of the photos lookalike sunset.

The harbour is very pretty and worth a walk around.

Harbour

All the guide books talk about the Spanish Arch. But frankly it was a little underwhelming. Still not sure why it i so important.

Spanish Arch

The Galway museum is a nice little place and free to get in.

Skull of a follower of someone

Giant bullet from WWI

A Galway Hooker boat

Back on the harbour

High river

Canal basin

I spent most of the day wondering around the city. The Cathedral is amazing! So beautiful. I didn't take any photos int here (felt wrong) but the stain glass Rose windows are lovely. They have some lovely markets too. 

Like everywhere they have Christmas markets going on and the lights are out.

Connemara, Kylemore and Cong

My holiday didn't start brilliantly. I had the day off on Wednesday to sort things out but ended up spending the morning in A&E. Not so fun. But thankfully they released me so I could get my packing done and was ready to fly on Thursday.

I hired a car at Shannon Airport. The drive to Galway was not fun. As soon as I turned the radio on, I heard, "Today's been one of the worse days on the N19 to Galway with 5 cars crashing due to bad weather." And the weather sucked. Rain. Sleet. Hail storms. And I am used to driving my car (created when power steering was just a dream) not a new one with power steering that beeps and yells at me and requires a series off buttons and levels to do anything. I was very happy to get to my hotel in one piece.
On Friday I did my first tour of the holiday, to Connemara (a national park), Kylemore Abbey and Cong.

Not great weather

The weather was hit and miss, with hail and rain and some sunny patches. Still driving through the Connemara National Park was very impressive no matter what the weather. The first stop, a lake where they cut peat/tuft for the fires, was very quick, cut short by the hail and freezing temperatures.

At the bog

The main stop for the day (and lunch!) was Kylemore Abbey. The Abbey is now in the hands of Benedictine Nuns.

Kylemore Abbey

There is thankfully a shuttle bus up to the walled gardens and back.

Sheep!

From the top of the gardens

Gardeners house

Veg patch

Greenhouse

Looking out over the mountains

It used to be the family home of Henry and Margaret Mitchell. They went to county Galway/Mayo for their honeymoon, and loved it so much that when they received some family money, they moved there and built the house. Unfortunately she died (aged 45) while they were on  holiday in Egypt. Henry was heart broken. He had a mausoleum and gothic church built for her. (Unfortunately they were not finished by the time they brought the body home. So he kept her in the coffin under the stairs and would bring her out and put her in the dining room when he had parties. Some say sweet. I think creepy!)

Gothic church

inside

Windows

Path back to the house.

The house passed through various people (it it huge and most couldn't afford the up-keep) until it came to the nuns. They made it into a posh prep school until a few years ago (as there are not that many nuns left). You can look around the ground floor.

Margaret Mitchell

Dining room

Outside the house

Out over the lake

On the road again

We stopped overlooking one of the loughs (same as loch or lake). And a fairy tree. It's a hawthorn I think. People tie bits of cloth on the branches (the colour depending on the wish, i.e pink when getting married, blue for kids etc). You go back a week later and if it is on the ground, withered, it means the magickal folk have granted your wish.

Fairy tree

The views over the lough were pretty awesome too.

We also stopped in Cong. It is a lovely little village and a set of my favourite books is set there. It was also used as the film set of "The Quiet Man" starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. 

Statue of John and Maureen

There is also the ruins of a pretty little abbey. I had a wonder around and ended up in the coffee shop with a really nice hot chocolate. (I was so cold and wet and it was getting dark.)

Into the Abbey

Colourful Cong

We also stopped on the way back at Ross Errily Friary. But it was pretty much dark by then. (It got dark really quickly and Mick, our guide and driver, said he wouldn't have bothered but he was already on the way there.) 

Friary in the dark

Mick dropped me off at the couch/bus station. It took me some time to find my way to the centre of town (my phone wasn't working and I forgot to pick up a map at the hotel). But I found my way to MacDonaghs for apparently Galway's best fish and chips and the best chips in Ireland. They were very nice and worth the walk.

Cotswolds with friends

I spent the weekend in the Cotswolds with Matt, El and Clare. Clare and I had some issues getting out of London. And the cottage is in the middle of nowhere. We had a bit of difficulty finding it (including a trip up someones drive). But thankfully Matt had tea ready for when we got there.

Saturday was wet and a bit miserable so we headed to Gloucester for food and some shopping. I didn't take any photos - too busy chatting! 

The weather on Sunday was much better and the sunrise was very pretty. (Best thing about this time of year is you don't need to get up early to see the sunrise!)

Sunrise

We went to Bourton on the Water for some more shopping (Christmas is practically sorted), a walk and some Sunday lunch.

Burton on the water

Clare, El and Matt

The trip home sucked. The M40 was a mess. But it was a great weekend and I hope we can go back (maybe for a bit longer so I don't have to spend 9 hrs driving.) :)