The end of Ireland

After staying at the Galway Hostel we packed up our backpacks and caught a tour bus out to the cliffs of Moher. We had a very cool driver named Paul. We were able to put our big backpacks under the bus which was really nice. We weren’t sure what were going to do with them while we were out hiking around the countryside.

Paul drove us out of Galway and into the Burren Mountains. The area is covered in limestone both rocks above the top soil and the base below the top soil. It was impressive watching Paul drive through the narrow roads avoiding oncoming traffic, the rock side walls, and talking about the local sights all at the same time.

[QUICKTIME http://bbryson.com/bill/files/2007/06/paul_driving.mov 320 260]

He dropped us off with a guy named John.  His family owns a farm in the Burren region that goes back many generations.  John had received a degree in Geology and had started up a hiking tour through his farm land to show off the unique region they lived in.

He took us up into the mountains and talked to us about the plants that lived in the area, and how the land was formed by it being under water a long long time ago, and then was carved out by glaciers only a long time ago (not long long).

On our way back down from the hike he brought us to a sliding stone.  It is a very large rock that has a smooth side that is flush with the ground.  You take another piece of lime stone, sit on it and then slide down this big rock.  John said it was something that the boys growing up in the area had been doing since his great great grandfather.

[QUICKTIME http://bbryson.com/bill/files/2007/06/stone_slide.mov 320 260]

We hopped back on the bus and Paul took us off to grab a little lunch and then to the cliffs.  It is pretty amazing seeing them drop dramatically into the ocean.  They had this set up a little different then the cliffs on Aran Islands.  They had barricades up that didn’t allow you to get to the very edge which was fun to do on the islands.  So I think if I were to give recommendations I’d say to go to the cliffs on the Aran islands over the cliffs of Moher.

Part of the reason they had the cliffs blocked off was to help maintain the puffins breeding habitat.  We thought it was just because too many people were falling in.

So we hiked around for a little while checking out the sights.  Then we got ice cream and headed back to Galway.

We got back into Galway around 5:30 and headed immediately over to the train station and got inline for the 6:05 train to Heuston Station in Dublin.  The train was a little late getting going and we had some really obnoxious kids sitting next to us with just terrible parents so the ride back was an extra long 3 hours.  We crashed in the hotel when we got in, were up at 5:00 AM the next morning and in the air heading back to the US by 9:30 AM.  Our two flights in the states were delayed.  The one from Chicago to Minneapolis was really delayed over 3 hours.  We finally made it to Minnesota around 8:00 P.M. to find that our bags had been lost between customs in the JFK airport where we rechecked them and Minnesota.

We were exhausted when finally made it in since we had been up for almost 24 hours so we grabbed the nearest hotel to the airport hoping to get some much needed sleep and that our bags may make it in over the night.  We are off to find out now.