The one with the Cliffs of Moher

Wednesday was the day trip that I was probably most excited for, to the Cliffs of Moher.  I will get to its awesomeness, but first things first...First stop on the trip was Limerick city.  We nearly stayed here, but ultimately decided against it because it didn't have many hostel options.  It was a pretty city, but I think we made the right choice.  Cork, being bigger and closer to more things, was better suited to our needs, and staying in Cork the whole time meant one less time switching hostels, which was nice. Mostly we were in Limerick to pick up more passengers, but it also included some nice views of King John's castle, situated along the River Shannon.  The castle was constructed in the late 1100s and played a big role in the Catholic/Protestant conflicts.  Nifty!  

Then we  moved on to another of those dolmens I told you about, this time called Poulnabrone Dolmen.  In Gaelic, the name means "hole of sorrows," and it dates back to 3000 BC.  People used to believe that, by passing the bodies of the dead through the dolmen, the dead would move from this world to the next.  Maybe you don't care about all my little facts and such, but this is what made my trip awesome, that and the baby calves and lambs we saw everywhere :) 

Next we drove through an area of land known as the Burren.  It is difficult to describe its vastness, but it essentially a ginormous area of limestone that extends for something like 80 square miles.  Most of the area is used for beef cattle grazing because it isn't fit for much else, at least in terms of farming.  Legend says that Oliver Cromwell, when invading from Britain, said, "Not enough wood to hang a man, water to drown him or soil to bury him," about the area.  Coming down from the rocks, we hit the coast and stopped to check out the Baby Cliffs.  Marissa thought it was funny but I was terrified about how close to the edge they let you get.  I was envisioning one of us having to inform the other's family of a terrible accident.  Luckily, we all made it back onto the bus safely, and we headed on to lunch in a little seaside town called Doolin.  It was a cute town, and lunch was good, especially this soup I got that may have been a potato soup, but I don't know.  It was good for sure!

After lunch, we hit up the Cliffs of Moher. In case you haven't heard of them, this awesome bit of scenery is featured in almost every movie taking place in Ireland (this may not be true, but it is in Leap Year) because of its sheer awesomeness.  It is as Irish as NYC is American. And it is not all hype.  It is everything that you would imagine.  They are nearly 700 ft in height, complete with walking paths in both directions at the top.  The visitors center has some interesting tidbits about the cliffs and the surrounding wildlife.  From the top, you would never guess that there are sharks, blue whales, bottlenose dolphins, sea urchins, puffins, and all sorts of marine life swimming below the waves so far down.  It is pretty out of the way of most big cities in Ireland, but I highly recommend it.  I would even go so far as to claim that no trip to Ireland is complete without it; yep, it is that good!

The trip was more or less over after the Cliffs. We drove through some cute towns with interesting histories.  One of them was the birthplace of the inventor of the first U.S. submarine, Joe Holland, for whom the Holland tunnel in NYC is named for.  Last stop of the day was at Bunratty Castle for a quick picture and bathroom break.  The castle dates back to the 1400s and was a typical square fortress of the time.  One of the interesting things about this type of castle is its entrance.  Usually there was an arched door at the entrance, and when being invaded or attacked, once the first door was breached, the soldiers would find themselves in a very small entrance hall in front of an even stronger door.  Above the hall would be an open area for castle occupants to drop boiling oils, shoot spears, and other weapons at the invaders, allowing them protect their castle for longer.  If I ever build a castle, I am definitely including one of these.  It was a long day in all, but I am sooooo glad that we went!