Got Moher Fun For Ya!

Monday--We board the coach and head north to see the Cliffs of Moher. Rising 700 feet above the Atlantic, the cliffs are impressive. The thing that cracked me up, and I'm not sure why I didn't expect this, was the fact that they looked exactly the same as the picture on my cover for DAMAGE DONE. 

I guess I thought that there'd be several viewpoints for the cliffs, but it is obvious this picture was taken from the same spot we were, where the Visitor Center is. 

Artistic shot with grass in foreground! Ooh!

'Nother artsy shot!

I told you I was obsessed with openings!

Picture to prove we were actually there.

We ate lunch in the Tourist Center ~ pre-made sandwhiches, which were awesome! Mine said chicken salad, but it wasn't what I expected. It had slabs of chicken. From here we headed to Galway to see the youngest of Europe's cathedrals--only 50-years-old. 

We then saw what was some of the most interesting landscape in Ireland, The Burren. When Cromwell's forces landed here he said something to the effect of, what is this country? What's the good of it? There are no trees to hang anyone from, no water to drown them in, and no earth to bury them in.  He was a real sweetheart. Some people describe this area as being like landing on the moon. We stopped along the road and our tour guide scrambled up the rock, calling for us to follow. It was a challenge. We climbed through this crevice and he would tell you where to step. "Left foot, there, to the right a little." Coming down was even more challenging. He was like, "Now just drop." And I was like, "Dude, that's a long way down. Maybe not for you, but for me. My legs are too short!" 

And this is what it looked like, as far as the eye could see!

I found a flower, though! :)

We traveled on through Connemara and stopped at the bridge from the John Wayne movie, "The Quiet Man." Maureen O'Hara, co-starred with him and just passed away at the age of 95 (Dublin native). 

We traveled on to our hotel, Ballynahinch Castle, truly one of the highlights of our trip. Not only was the castle nice, the grounds were amazing!

The view from our room!

Our room was called Elephant's Walk because at one point during the castle's history an Indian prince owned it.

I loved the mist rising over the water!

Love the reflections in the water!

We went to the bar to get drinks and they told us they'd bring them to us. Happy hour, castle-style!

So when I went to bed I tried not to think about the fact that we were in a castle and it was probably haunted, and I fell asleep fine. But in the middle of the night it sounded like someone was in our room stepping on stiff wrapping paper. Crinkle, crinkle, crinkle. It was so close! I held my breath and listened. And after a few seconds I heard the flush of a toilet. 

I'm pretty sure ghosts don't use toilets and that the sound I heard was the paint crinkling on the ceiling as someone walked above. But, since I was awake, I got up to use the bathroom. On my way back to bed the bathroom door swung to with a loud, creepy creak. I ran the last several feet and launched myself over Don and into bed. Luckily I was able to fall back to sleep pretty quickly and had a good night's sleep...