Day 53 - Cliffs of Moher and the Aran Islands (Galway)

Nothing like a good day trip to make you feel better.

I won’t lie, I was pretty down the last couple of days here in Galway. I think it’s that magical 2 month wall I seem to hit each time I travel.

Note to self – go on 2 month trips and not 4 month trips…

Anyway, the lame day trip a couple of days ago was more than tempered by the stunning trip I had today.

People visit Galway for two things – the Cliffs of Moher and the Aran Islands – and today I visited both.

Today was actually the first day of the season and the weather couldn’t have been better.

Seriously, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. Easily the best weather since I came over to Europe.

Now, it was still cold cause, well, it’s Ireland, but I’m used to bundling up by now so that was no big deal.

My leg on the other hand was still pulsing in pain. I honestly have no idea what I’ve done to it and I’ve never experienced this particular injury before. I bought some “heat rub” ointment and some pain pills and I’m just kinda hoping it just gets better on it’s own.

I made sure I was one of the first to board the bus so I could get a seat up front with a little more leg room and no one beside me so I could stretch out.

It actually worked quite well because for the most part there was no pain as I found a good way to flex my right calf muscle to avoid it.

Anyway, on to the trip…

First we visited the Aran Islands. Well, more specifically, we visited Inisheer which is the smallest of the three islands.

Our tour bus took the 3 hour inland scenic route out to Doolin where the small ferries take you from the mainland to the different islands.

After a half hour ferry ride we stepped foot onto Inisheer.

The island is about 3km by 3km so it’s really not that big. We were given 2 hours on the island and we had 4 options for how to get around.

Walk or pay 10 euros for either a bike rental, a horse carriage ride, or a ride on a tractor pulled wagon.

With my leg there was no way I was walking or biking so I paid the 10 euros and hopped onto the back of the wagon on the tractor.

Normally I would totally go with the horse, cause, well, it’s a horse but the tractor option went to a couple more places and I wanted to see everything on the tiny island.

For 45 minutes we went around the island and saw the small landing strip for inter-island planes, a sunken church, a shipwreck, a small castle and alot of rock fences.

After the ride around the island I stopped by a little B&B and had me some seafood chowder. You seriously couldn’t get any more homemade than this as they literally were cooking the food out of the kitchen in their house.

At 2pm we all met up again and hopped on a ferry back.

The ferry back though wasn’t going directly back to Doolin as we were taking an hour loop out to pass under the Cliffs of Moher that we would be visiting later in the afternoon.

Seeing 700 foot cliffs from the water is pretty damn spectacular!

We got off the ferry and popped into the town of Doolin for a quick lunch at the local pub.

Naturally I had the classic Irish dish of, wait for it….

Chicken Kiev!

Mmmmmmm… good ‘ol classic Ireland right there on a plate!

Hey, after awhile you get sick of fish and chips and beef stews.

On to our last stop of the day – the Cliffs of Moher!

For anyone who has seen the movie The Princess Bride, the Cliffs of Insanity in the move are actually these cliffs we were visiting today.

As we pulled up our tour guide gave us an ominous warning about being careful walking along the cliffside.

Unlike the crazy over-regulations we have in North America when it comes to things like safety, here at the Cliffs there’s no guardrails and they let Darwin’s natural selection do the work for them.