Milder Moments: Ireland Day 2

We made ourselves get up at 8 this morning otherwise who knows how late we would've slept. We went into the village for breakfast about 9. The place that was recommended doesn't start serving breakfast until 9:30...on a weekday morning!! We ended up down the street a bit and had a great Irish breakfast. This was my "mini Irish breakfast" a "full" has two of everything!

Scott had porridge...aka oatmeal.

After breakfast we drove an hour and a half or so to the Cliffs of Moher. The driving here is unnerving to say the least. I sit on the left side of the car while Scott drives from the right. It feels like riding in the sidecar of a motorcycle. Like we are all just driving around on these tiny narrow roads in toy cars! And the people here think they are all race car drivers! The speed limits are also high. I tried to give you a glimpse of what it looks like driving, but this doesn't quite capture it...

The "motorways" are wide, but the roads through some of the villages are really one lane, but are for 2 cars and meeting another car coming at you head on is a white knuckler! There is hardly any shoulder because you are usually right up against the stone wall/fence of a pasture. Then, there are the roundabouts. VERY few traffic lights, but in their place are the traffic circles. Picture the Chevy Chase movie European Vacation. They don't always have anything major in the middle like fountains or statues, which is good because yesterday Papaw drove right through one!!!

Speaking of Papaw....Here he is in front of a Guarda Station. That's the national police. We asked in a pub about the police officers here because Dad wanted to meet one. The pub owner told us "you'll be lucky to see one...they are like leprechauns!"

We made it to the Visitor Center at the Cliffs and everyone had to find the restroom of course. This was stuck to the backside of the bathroom stall door...

Just in case you have to use the bathroom before you decide to hurl yourself off the cliff.

The guy who owned the pub at dinner last night was telling us about the cliffs. He said "whether you stay 30 minutes or 3 hours they look the same." Its what I call a "Grand Canyon Moment" you go all that way to see it and really once you've seen it.....you've seen it! They are however worth the drive...

We walked all the way up to this Napoleonic watch tower and went to the top of the turret....

After we were all done at the cliffs, we were freezing. We stopped in a village called Lisdoonvarna at a pub to warm up and have a bite to eat. All the pubs have these open fireplaces...

Clearly no fire marshals or lawsuit happy attorneys over here. The pub owner was a woman and she immediately stoked up the fire when we sat down to get us thawed out. First time in my life I've ever actually seen someone scoop COAL out of a metal bucket and put it on the fire. I feel like I have stepped back in time about 100 years. No joke. Oh and not a single public toilet is heated. The pubs and shops and restaurants are heated but the bathrooms are FRIGID!

After we ate and warmed up we decided to go to Ennis. Bigger than a village, not a city...probably a town?? Sooo pretty. I guess with everything here being green or gray they use the storefronts to add color to the landscape...

We went in several of the shops. Papaw found a policeman and talked to him for awhile and gave him a GPD patch. We had ice cream and then decided to head back to our village for dinner.

On tomorrow's agenda is Blarney Castle and Cork. The lady in the pub tonight said the best shopping is in Cork!

A few more pics from today....