Catching Up

     It's time I caught you up, fellow travelers.  I'm just realizing that I haven't reported on our doings since we arrived in Killarney.  Killarney seemed to be a nice, touristy town.  Lots of pubs and shops and cleaner looking than Cork or Dublin.  But I was feeling peckish (jet lag related I think) and therefore did not get out as much as I'd like.  

     On Tuesday we toured the Dingle Peninsula, stopping at an information center where we learned about the Blasket Islands and their erstwhile residents.  We also stopped in the town of Dingle itself, which is yet another collection of  restaurants and souvenir shops.  The Dingle peninsula is all about the scenery and the gaelic culture and we were not disappointed.

     On Wednesday, we left Killarney heading toward Galway.  En route, we stopped at the charming Adare Village (pretty park, cute shops), but the day's prime destination was the Cliffs of Moher.  They truly are incredible (see pictures).  The weather changed about 5 times in the 1.5 hours we were there, ranging from foggy to misty to overcast but clear.  I was impressed with the visitor center here -- it is built into the landscape (a cliff interior) so it is relatively unobtrusive.

     After also crossing the Burren, we arrived in Galway only to sweep right past it and settle into our hotel at nearby Salt Hill.  This hotel is right on Galway Bay and has wonderful views, but is several miles from the fun part of Galway.  For this reason and others (more on that in my next post), I bailed out on today's bus tour and spent the day by myself in Galway.

     This proved to be a good choice.  I got in a lot of much needed fresh air and walking, took a very good walking tour offered by a city guide, visited several other sights on my own, and generally enjoyed making my own decisions for a day.  I rejoined my tour buddies for dinner at the hotel and afterwards, several of us went back to Galway to try out some pubs and Irish music.  

     We leave Galway tomorrow and will cross into Northern Ireland for two nights in Derry, which I am excited to see.

     One downside of all this bus travel is that my little point and shoot camera doesn't do well from the bus, so many of my photos have my own reflection in them or are blurred.  I've tried to pick out some decent ones so take a look.  (Several of us have a plot underway to exploit the much better photos that one of our tour mates, who has a real camera and knows out to use it, seems to be getting).