The Cliffs of Moher

Fun fact: the photo background that I chose for my blog YEARS ago...is the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast of Ireland. I didn't know that at the time. It was just a stock image that I thought was gorgeous. But now my blog comes full circle, because today, we visited those actual cliffs.

For the second morning, we set our alarms for 8 am and got up, showered, and ate breakfast. One of these days we'll have a proper lie-in, but not today.

We drove to the visitor center for the Cliffs of Moher. Technically, the cliffs are free, but you pay for parking, which funds the visitor center (this seemed reasonable to us, but apparently, some Irish people kinda resent it.)

We did the visitor center first, which included Bella and I buying cappuccinos. We're getting a head start on our espresso/gelato budget for Italy.

The cliffs, and I apologize for the repetition but it's such a good word, are STOONING. (btw, if you've been reading my blog and don't know what stooning is, it's just stunning with an Irish accent). We walked the trail, including crossing the little breach where people go perilously close to the edge for a photo op. I didn't let Bella and Jacoby get too close, but plenty of tourists were sitting right on the edge with their legs draped over. It provoked a slightly uncomfortable feeling, I must say.

We spent several hours at the cliffs. Irish (and Brits) overuse the word brilliant the same way Americans overuse the word awesome. But I can't overstate how brilliant and awesome the Cliffs of Moher were. I liken it to the Grand Canyon in terms of wow factor.

We thought Moher was pronounced like more. But Cristina heard a park ranger say mow-her. So when we came down from O'Brien's Tower, I confirmed it with the ranger manning the tower. All I said to him was "More? Mower? Mow-her?" He emphatically said mow-her. So there you go.

We had brought a picnic lunch, but it was rather windy and a bit too cool, so we drove back to the airbnb and ate our lunch at home. Afterwards, we had some downtime. Cristina did some stuff on her laptop, Nancy napped on the couch. I hooked up my little Bluetooth keyboard to my phone to work on my blog and quickly realized that this was not going to be a sustainable way to blog. The problem wasn't the keyboard, which worked fine. The problem was Blogger issues on an android device. The formatting controls disappear when I'm typing text, and inserting photos is also very difficult, even though the photos live on the very device I'm trying to blog on. I barely got one day blogged and then laid down on my bed and tried not to fall asleep. I just needed to rest. Jet lag was catching up with me. I think I did doze off briefly.

After a few hours of quiet, we drove back into Doolin and ate dinner at a pub a few shops down from the ice cream place. Trad music was on point here, with a larger group of musicians. I got my first fish and chips of the trip. The mushy peas were excellent. We had a nice chat with the waiter who talked about how Irish people don't cover their windows because they want as much light as possible and how warm it is right now for them (as we slipped on our down jackets).

We drove down to the Doolin pier to catch another sunset. We were a little late, but it was still lovely. Some people were actually swimming off the pier. It was 55 F/13 C. They were not wearing wet suits.

Back at home, we got to bed after midnight, yet again. Some day we might get to a more regular schedule. After midnight wouldn't be that big of a deal if we could sleep in, but tomorrow we'd be setting our alarms for 9 am to pack up and head east.