Went on a day tour to the Aran Islands, Inisheer to be specific, and to the Cliffs of Moher, one of the best sights in Ireland. Saw some of the region known as the Burren, too.
The Burren is a landscape of broken limestone. It looks desolate but many unique plants have been discovered there.
The Aran Islands off the West coast are also composed of limestone and they’ve been beaten by waves from the Atlantic Ocean forever.
Rented a bike on Inisheer. It’s a small island so I covered a lot of it in the three hours the tour stopped there.
The Cliffs of Moher were blanketed in clouds for an hour and a half of the hour and 45 minutes the tour was there. So, when the clouds broke with about 15 minutes before the bus left, walked as fast as my cycled-out legs could go to a viewpoint. Those cliffs really are a highlight. They rise 800 feet above the ocean.
The ferry took the group along the cliffs but it was cloudy and raining so opportunities for photos were few or none. This was the ferry back from the island of Inisheer.
If you come to Ireland, the Cliffs of Moher should be on your to-see list. Some people even do a day trip from Dublin to see them.
Scenes from Galway late this afternoon. The cathedral is kind of historic. One reason is that Columbus visited in 1477. He came to Galway to find out more about two things.
One is the legend of the Irish monk, St Brendan, who is said to have sailed to Newfoundland 800 years before which would make him and his companions the first Europeans to the “New World”.
Another thing is a story about two bodies that washed ashore or found just offshore of Ireland on top of “logs”. The individuals didn’t look European. It’s believed that they might have been Inuits in kayaks brought to Ireland by the North Atlantic Current.
Columbus was trying to find evidence of some place, any place, west of Europe.
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