Packed up and moving further north, we headed for the Cliffs of Moher. These 700 ft sea cliffs above the Atlantic Ocean are located at the southwestern edge of the Burren region in County Clare, Ireland. They stretch out about 7 miles along the Atlantic oceanfront. You can see for miles and there are a bunch of puffins flying around. If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you might recognize the location from the movie. Do plan on some uphill climbing to get the best view…and by the time we got back to the car, our knees, legs, hips and any other body part you can name was feeling the burn. Yelp, we are getting OLDer🥴

Bypassing Galway, our next lodging was in Oughterard. A quaint B& B owned by a German lady, who professed in her ad to have a great breakfast and would even cook guests a German meal upon request. Breakfast…YES..excellent! Dinner was a no-go…she’s too busy now days to do that and forgot to remove that amenity from her ad.🥴. Everything was clean but we were led to believe we would have the whole house…nope, a couple other people were staying there. The pros…ABSOLUTELY AMAZING views of the ocean, good breakfast. Cons…HARD AS PLYWOOD BEDS, linens were musty smelling, pillows were 1/2”thick, and toilets were extremely loud and kept running for at least 5 minutes…which makes for a restless night.

Oh well, we spent our next day doing the spectacular Atlantic Wild Sea Drive and ending up at the Kylemoor Abbey. I’d seen this breath-taking Abbey from afar in 2013, but it was closed to visitors. It’s now open and a monument that has been well preserved. It was built in 1868 by Mitchell Henry (an Irish politician) for his family. They lived there for 35 years, then the Duke & Duchess of Manchester lived there for 11 years, and finally the Benedictine Nuns have occupied it for the last 100 years running a boarding school. The Castle itself is over 40,000 sq ft and has 70 rooms, while the entire estate covers 15,000 acres and has 3 lakes. My favorite is the Gothic mini-cathedral Henry built in honor of his wife, Margaret. In 1875, only 7 years after the castle was completed, Margaret died of a fever contracted while visiting Egypt. Although this church is small, it’s filled with beautiful marble pillars (from the local area) and has angels sitting upon the entrance. Very feminine …which was unusual for architecture in those times.

Back on the road (I might add here that I’ve driven most of the trip with my mighty fine navigator, Miss Cissy, …and encouraged by our back seat drivers, Miss Cecilia and Mrs. Fipps) and looping back toward our lodging, we stopped overlooking a lake to eat our Picnic lunch at a roadside picnic table. We eventually ended up back in Oughterard at a local castle and admired its ruins. Interesting, but they are all starting to look alike🙃 Dinner in town…lasagne…ugh no cheese! Guess I thought I was in Italy when I ordered it, or it might be that I’m just tired of fish & chips.😜

We have made an executive decision to forego our last night we had paid for at our “HARD BED” lodging and move on tomorrow to Kilronan Castle Hotel, halfway to Belfast.