Day 11

THE CLIFFS OF MOHER!!

We had nothing to do today so we decided to take a trip. About 8 of us decided to go to the Burrens and to the Cliffs of Moher. The bus picked us up at the Niland House at 9:45a.m. and drove us to the bus station where we picked up the rest of the group. The bus was really nice and we drove about an hour to the Burrens where we did a walking tour. A guy gave us a walking tour because him and his family owned the land. It was so amazing to think that one family could own so much land. The guy was also an archeologist so he knew a lot about the land and the surrounding places. Him and his family own the land with some other families. They make most of their money on cows. We got to see the cows and many of them were pregnant right now or had just given birth. We got to see a baby cow and it was so cute. The guy told us that once winter comes he takes the cows to the top of the mountain and when spring arrives he brings them back down. So around October the cows were brought to the top of the mountain and recently they were brought back down. This is mainly done because up at the top of the mountain there is limestone which soaks up all the water and allows the ground to be dry. Once we were done looking at the cows we started our walk.

The walk was pretty amazing. It was more of a hike than I thought it was going to be. Luckily for us the weather was beautiful. It had rained earlier in the morning (and hailed) but when we started the walk it was gorgeous. The walk took about an hour. There were so many rocks and the rocks were hard to maneuver especially with my oversized rain boots that I was given by the guy so that I did not ruin my sneakers with all the mud. We walked up to the almost top of the mountain and had made many stops along the way and the guy taught us about everything around us. On the mountains there are random walls and he told us that during the potato famine so many people needed work and they did not know what kind of jobs to give them. So they decided to have them build walls on the mountains because it would keep them busy but would not have any affect on the land. Basically the walls are useless and mean nothing. Also during the famine some families tried to move their potato farms to the tops of the mountains because of the blight that was ruining the potatoes at the ground level. So many families moved their potato farms to the tops of the mountains with hopes that they would be able to grow potatoes. However, blight traveled with the wind and followed the potato farms to the top of the mountain. There is also a tree that he showed us where Irish people tie something on the tree and it symbolizes them leaving behind a trouble. They used to do this a long time ago when his grandfather was alive and they had stopped doing it for awhile but recently the tradition has started up again.

Once we reached the top of the mountain we walked back down. When we looked in the distance we saw that a rain storm was heading our way so we were trying to beat out the storm. Once we got back to the guy's home and sat by the fire to wait for our bus to come back the rain starting to come down. It was pouring and we had just made it to safety. It was such a relief. When the bus finally arrived we got on it and continued our travels to the Cliffs of Moher.

We made other stops along the way to check out some other landmarks. We went up a corkscrew mountain which had lots of turns.

Once we made it to the Cliffs of Moher we had an hour to walk around before it was time to get back on the bus. The Cliffs of Moher are the prettiest thing I have ever seen. I could not believe how amazing they were. The weather was once again beautiful but there was a lot of wind. It was kind of ridiculous how much wind there was. We took a lot of pictures. The Cliffs of Moher overlook the water and there were waves crashing. One picture was prettier than the next.

We left the Cliffs of Moher and got back on the bus. We stopped for lunch and then headed back to Galway. Along the way the tour guide continued to show us various sites and we got off the bus once or twice. One of the stops near the water and the tour guide said that during the winter the water can come right up over the rocks we were stopped at. We finally got back to the Niland House around 5:30p.m. We were exhausted but it was such an amazing day. The best one so far.

All of the pictures from the walking tour and the Cliffs of Moher are posted on my facebook page. Oma and Pop Pop ask Mom to show you them because they really are gorgeous.