On our last full day in Ireland, we got up early to walk to the Molly Malone statue, where we were to meet our tour bus through Extreme Ireland / Irish Day Tours around 6:45am. The weather was predicted to be rainy, so we brought our umbrellas and rain ponchos. Today’s tour was to the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast of Ireland. (The Cliffs of Moher have been featured in a couple of my favorite movies: as the “Cliffs of Insanity” in The Princess Bride and also the cliffs where the cave with a horcrux was found in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.)
Cliffs of Moher
It was a several hour drive to the Cliffs of Moher, during which the bus driver entertained us with stories about Ireland and its history.
True to the forecast, it was quite rainy when we arrived. And WINDY. Unfortunately, it did take away a little from the enjoyment for me, as I would have liked to just stand and gaze at the ocean and the cliffs without the wind’s distraction. But we appreciated the beauty nonetheless!
The Burren
After the Cliffs of Moher, we traveled north along the coast to The Burren. I really enjoyed the rocky landscape and its rugged beauty. And the many stone fences everywhere we looked were so beautiful, too. According to our bus driver, they are made from rocks taken from fields, do not contain mortar in between the rocks, and some date back hundreds of years! Though it was still drizzly, the rain and wind were a bit less prevalent here, thankfully! We were delighted to even see a rainbow out over the ocean.
Dunguaire Castle 
As we continued traveling north, the roads became very narrow. Being that we were on a wide tour bus, this was very interesting – especially when a truck was coming from the other direction and there were rock walls on either side! There was NO WHERE to go and both the bus and the truck had to scrape up alongside the rock walls a bit. I was sitting by the window and I don’t think there were more than a couple inches between the two vehicles! Many kudos to our bus driver and his excellent navigation skills!
Galway
Our final stop of the day was to visit the city of Galway. It was still cool and drizzly outside, so Greg and I visited a little cafe to get a coffee and a Caffè mocha (which was absolutely delicious!)
Then it was back to Dublin for our final evening.
