Day 9 Galway

No full Irish breakfast for me this morning, absolutely no way. I'm going down to the hotel restaurant and order fruit and yogurt. Well, that's what I said. When I got there the only thing they had was a buffet with all the fixings of a full Irish breakfast. I couldn't help it, until I was done I had consumed a full Irish breakfast. Damn, I was bloated again, I'll never learn. Sylvia was much smarter and stayed in the room and drank coffee.

It was mid morning until we left for the Cliffs of Moher. It was an easy hour and a half drive with no incidents or lively discussions. By this time we were barely talking anyhow. When we arrived I was surprised to see mostly open fields with a rather large parking lot and no visitors center. We got out and were directed by

smallish signs that said Visitor Center. It was really cool. It was buried in the

Visitor's Center

hillside and hardly visible on the walk up, but once inside it opened up into a pretty large display room with a restaurant, snack bar, little theater, displays, restrooms, and information center. We spent some time there and saw a movie about the cliffs. After leaving the visitors center you walk a quarter mile up to the cliff walk and are greeted with spectacular views of cliffs that rise 600 feet above the Atlantic Ocean and continue on for miles. It's well worth the trip just for this view. But if you're an outdoor enthusiast, you could do the whole walk along the edge for seven miles. I would have loved to do the 14 miles round trip from Doolin to Liscannor...30 years ago. We only spent a little over an hour there, but it was worth the drive and would visit the cliffs anytime I was in the area.

Driving back to Galway we stopped for a late lunch in the village of Kinvara only to find that every lunch place in town closes on Tuesday except for the Hotel Merriman. It was late so we ate there instead of driving farther up the road. Sylvia ordered the smoked haddock poached in milk with mashed potatoes. It sounded weird, but she thought that besides the lemon sole she ordered the other day, it was the best fish she had in Ireland. As for myself, I wanted to try the crumbled cod with chips and salad. I ordered it only because I imagined that crumbled meant smushed into little pieces, and I just had to see how they did that! Damn, it meant bread crumbs, so I had fish and chips again. It was good though. Got back to the hotel around 4 with way too much time to kill before dinner.

After hanging out and doing nothing for a couple of hours we still weren't hungry, so we went out at seven a walked about awhile and decided to stop in a pub or two. The first was King's Head and then Garavans. The last stop was The Front Door where we ate anyway. Sylvia did the pizza and I finally had Irish Beef Stew, both good. Obviously we spent time in a lot of pubs, but never found a favorite, they're all good.Tomorrow we leave Galway for someplace nearer to the airport.

You can actually walk the entire length of the cliffs. About 7 miles.

Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher