We drove the Slea head drive before leaving the Dingle peninsula. It was far and away a better drive than the Ring of Kerry. In addition to the incredible scenery, there were all sorts of ancient forts and sites from the Iron Age. Some of the beehive huts were from 1000s of years BCEAbsolutely incredible!
From Dingle we headed north into County Clare. Mark liked Clare. Aside from the fact that, of course, it was named after his sister its scenery is typically Irish agrarian. Cows, sheep (and baby lambs!!!), and farms were everywhere. It's not as spectacular as Kerry County, but still beautiful in it's own way. Our target was the cliffs of Moher and we intended to stop for the night in the small town of Doolin.
The cliffs of Moher are absolutely breathtaking. They rise over 200 meters in some places (Imagine standing on the edge of a cliff that dropped 2 football fields!) and the hiking trails along the top go for kilometers and kilometers. They are truly one of the world's "special things" nothing we've seen so far in life provides a similar comparison. Sure, the Grand Canyon has some stunning cliffs, but their coloring and the atmosphere is completely different. The cliffs of Moher seem to incredibly and inexplicably rise out of the ocean.
Doolin is supposed to be the place to go in Ireland for a traditional music pilgrimage. We arrived in the early evening checked out the small town (there is practically NOTHING there!) and decided to see if a room was available at the Atlantic View B&B. The B&B was recommended by lonely planet and we loved everything about it. The bed was almost "Heavenly!" (Have you experienced the Westin's heavenly bed? This is another of our "favorite things!")
Doolin is supposed to be big with backpackers although I think we saw more tourists. For a town so small, the hostel is massive and you'd expect to see more "grungy" backpacker types, but they just didn't seem to be around. In fact, when we went out exploring in the evening, there was really no one around. For awhile we even thought that perhaps we had made a mistake.
We ordered some yummy pub grub for dinner and sat around to wait. Eventually, the pub started filling up with peopleEdinner was in full swing by 8pm and the music was rocking by 9:35. Some of the musicians are local but many are just passing through on holiday, or students of music who are looking to experience this traditional and special form of music. We are just outsiders who thought it was a great night out! So good, in fact, that we decided to stay another night!
Tomorrow we head back to the Netherlands and it's 11 long weeks until the summer holidays. We have a few things to keep us going between now and then 5 days off at the end of May (maybe Poland, maybe Brussels?) and, of course, the running of the bulls in Pamplona to look forward to. I just hope that we can manage to keep up the work so that we can continue the travel.
