Cathedrals, Cliffs, Connemara: Oh me, oh my!

Our first week in September has been pretty eventful so far.  Sunday, we awoke to a beautiful Irish Day.  After a late Irish breakfast, we headed out to join the crowds already in the street.  It was an exciting day in Ireland because it was the Hurling Championship.  Tipperary and Kilkenny were playing.  We first had to plough through the hordes of Kilkenny fans in the lobby of our hotel.  We stopped and talked to some of their fans and they were confident of a win. 

This is a traditional sport that involves something to do with a bat and ball and is very manly.  They were an exuberant group and I am sure that the other fans were too.  The game was being played in a stadium that seats over eighty thousand and it was a sell out.  Tipperary won.

After doing some touristy things, we arrived at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for Evensong at three.  The choir and organist were really good and We loved sitting in the old structure which was begun

nearly nine hundred years ago.  The sermon was on how our lives should reflect that of Our Lord and was a good message.  After the choir closing, we wandered around the cathedral looking at the soaring architecture and the beautiful stained glass windows.

We walked out and enjoyed the sun in the park adjoining the church where a lot of Dubliners were enjoying the fine weather with us.  A beautiful boxer lay sprawled out with his belly on the soft grass.  You could almost see a smile on his face!

We finished off our day riding around another section of Dublin before going to the Arlington Hotel for a Celtic evening of traditional music, dance, and food. 

By ten, we were ready to grab a cab back to our hotel to avoid walking back in the rain.

Monday morning was an early one.  We had booked a tour to the west coast of Ireland to see the Cliffs of Mohr, one of the most spectacular natural sites in Ireland.  We trudged down the street and found the bus already loading a good twenty minutes before time.  Our driver for this trip gave every appearance of possible having some leprechaun DNA.  He certainly seemed to want to be the first tour bus to reach the various locations that we were going to.

On our trip over one of Ireland’s new motorways (about 5 years old), the driver shared some of the ancient history of the land and imparted the story of St. Patrick who was kidnapped and brought to Ireland when he was a boy.  Later after he escaped, returned to England and trained as a priest, he came back to Ireland in an effort to save the Celts from their pagan ways.  He was successful and rich folklore has grown up in the culture. 

Our first brief stop was at kinvara which means head of the sea.  We got some good view of fishing boats and the Dunguaiire Castle. 

The roads along the Atlantic Way Coastal Drive were not the fast, modern roadways, but the scenery was spectacular.  When we arrived at the “Baby Cliffs of Mohr”

the sea was beating against the base of the cliffs and we were wondering what our views of the cliffs would be like.

After lunching at Doolin in the Fitzpatrick’s Pub, we twisted and turned our way on up to the site of the Cliffs of Mohr and joined about twenty other tour buses full of people.  We took the path up to the viewing area for the cliffs, but we did not climb to the top of the cliff area. 

The main reason for doing that is to see the Puffins and they have already migrated this year.  The day was unusually warm, the mist had cleared, and the sea was calm.  I had expected wild tumultuous seas and heavy winds to go with the cliffs.  Ah well, I did find daisies blooming.

After our two hour visit and our daily ice cream, we headed to Bunratty Castle and the shopping stop.

We motored back to Dublin with air blowing in the top vent of the bus since the AC belt had broken.  Klep and I stumbled back to the hotel, grabbed a salad for me, soup for him at the restaurant and wondered if we’d ever have energy enough to move again.

A good hot shower and a good night’s sleep had us up at five a.m. today, Tuesday for our next adventure.  Today was to be a different tour group with Irish Day Tours because Klep really wanted to see Connemara, a region of western Ireland which includes County Mayo and County Galway.  This is a region that has often been depicted in art and was a favorite of many of the playwrights and poets.

Our first challenge of the day was to be at the Molly Malone Statue (In Dublin’s fair city, where the girls are so pretty, I first met the girl they called Molly Malone, etc.) in front of St. Andrew’s Church to meet our tour group not long after six.  We caught a taxi just before O’Connell Street, roared over the bridge to the south side of the River Liffey, and found buxom Molly pushing her cart just where it was supposed to be.  Several other tourists were already gathered there.  Evidently this is a place where more than one tour group begins.  We were collected a head of the scheduled time and since all of us were there, we headed to the motor way again.

We were a small group in a much smaller van with Irish Day Tours.  Our driver was the best we’ve had so far and was more competent than cute.  As we drove onto the motor way, he explained how Ireland had managed to upgrade its road system through help from the European Union and the Irish government working cooperatively with private investors and companies to get the job done.  It is a real boon to the economy and especially to the tourist industry.

The Connemara region where we were going derives its name from the clan O’Conner and Mara for sea.  As we arrived in the region, the driver pointed out the beginnings of the bogs that are harvested by the people for fuel and now are harvested for commercial usages.  After we left the motor way at Galway, the roads became much rougher because they are built over bogs and no matter how much rock is put down under the roads, they are still built on ground which is spongy.

Our first stop that we arrived at after twisting and turning through some rugged terrain was Killary Fjord which is the only fjord in Ireland.  We had a boat ride around it and saw some of the mussel farming and salmon farming that is going on here.  There was also a small seal sunning on a little island.  The air was fresh and the clouds hanging over the tops of the mountains bordering water were spectacular and brooding.  Sheep were grazing down the hillsides and some were at the shore line.

After the boat ride, we drove through the beginning of the Connemara National Park, a region full of lakes mirroring the towering hills to Klymore Abby where we had lunch and a stroll around the grounds.  The house was built as a castle, but was taken over by nuns whose abbey in Europe was destroyed during WW 1.  For years they operated a finishing school for young ladies, but now it is basically a retirement home for the aging nuns.

We got a good look at the bogs and had a walk on one.  It was quite springy.  The peat is almost odorless and the bog has preserving power. 

At one time farm women wrapped their butter in cloth and stored it in the bogs.  During ancient Celtic times, human sacrifices were done in the bogs and some of those preserved remains have been located by people digging the peat.

Our last stop of the day was at Galway, a city going back to the 1200’s.  Because it is an old city, many of the streets are quite narrow and it is difficult to navigate in motor vehicles.

After we loaded up, we headed back toward Dublin full of good images of an interesting day.

Four days of the week are left.  Now we wait to see what they bring.