Ireland Day 5 - Cliffs of Moher

Day 5 started with breakfast at the hotel in Limerick and a drive up to Bunratty Castle. We couldn’t actually go in the castle but it was still fun to see it from the outside. The best part was the great store across the street where we were able to pick up a lot of great items and ride out some rain storms that made their way through the area. We ate some lunch in a nice café in the store and then hit the road again. Here is Bunratty Castle:

Our next stop was the famous Cliffs of Moher which claim the best views in Ireland. This is a stop almost every tourist to Ireland makes but it is always a gamble. The cliffs are often covered in fog to the point that you can’t see a few feet in front of you, let alone the great view of the cliffs. We were blessed to have an absolutely perfect day for viewing the cliffs! It was quite the experience. Before I go further, here is a picture of the cliffs so you can picture them in your mind:

The crazy part about being at the Cliffs of Moher is the wind. It really feels like you are in the midst of hurricane force gusts. You have to fight to step forward every foot and brace yourself not to be blown over. I have never experienced anything like it in my life. There is a walkway that goes up to a viewing point where you can see the cliffs as in the picture above. This was the best angle due to the sun but the concrete path ends just before you can turn a corner and get out to a spot where you can see the water crashing below and the cliffs beyond. There is a sign saying you are not supposed to go any further but nearly everyone was.

I wanted the picture so we ventured beyond and found out why that sign exists. Once you turn the corner, the wind picks up dramatically and it is really hard to stand. I pulled the camera up to my face and could barely hold it in place. I took my picture and we quickly popped back over to the other side of the sign where the wind died back down. Absolute craziness! You can walk along the cliffs and see the mini castle in the picture above but you still fight the wind the entire way. Am and I had a blast both in seeing the views and in trying to stay on our feet! Here are some various views of us around the cliffs:

From the Cliffs of Moher, we headed toward the city of Galway. We were unable to reach one of the B&Bs from our guidebook ahead of time so we decided just to roll into town and see what we could find. Galway ended up being absolutely beautiful. The edge of the city snakes around the bay and we found a hotel that looked good right on the water. Am gave them a call and the rate was slightly more than our limit…but, they were having a wedding and the room they had available was just above the reception area. According to the lady, Irish wedding receptions often go until 1:00 AM…and then they pick back up with a disco! She was willing to knock off 40 euros if we wanted the room above the reception (which put it well within our price range!). We decided to give it a shot so we visited the hotel. At reception, the lady apparently thought we weren’t going to take it because she ended up knocking off another 20 euros (in 10 euro increments) before we were able to get the words out “we’ll take it”.

We were both exhausted enough that we barely heard the music so this ended up being an amazing find! One fun thing we are finding out about Ireland is that the hotels tend to have a lot of “family” rooms that have multiple beds. The room we ended up with at this hotel had a queen size bed in the main room but then two adjoining rooms – one with two single beds and another with one single bed. Pretty awesome if you are bringing a family to Ireland! Below are some pictures of the room. Overall, another fantastic day in Ireland!!!