Hangin' In Limerick

Hello Folks...

We're in Limerick tonight. This has been a day to remember. It started off with a RIDICULOUSLY early wake-up call. But it was worth it. We travelled southwest, going through some very rural areas. Some pretty amazing sites. Stopped in a town named Burren. Along with it's beautiful scenery, however, sadly there was a LOT of pretty impoverished lookin' stuff. Farmers... with acres and acres of nothing but ROCK to farm. The landscape is near-treacherous. Yet these families have been there for generations. Makes one want to tell those folks to move. Oh well. The landscape was beautiful, and it all laid alongside the coast... so that made for some awesome scenery.
Next we went to The Cliffs of Moher. Gotta tell ya, we could leave for the states tomorrow, and my trip here would be complete. These were truly the most amazing natural wonders I've ever seen (they're likely the most amazing things I've ever witnessed, period). The picture posted here doesn't do them justice (used my phone... but fear not!... I got some FANTASTIC real pics). Just realize, while it's Cameron you see in the foreground, those are some of the cliffs in the background. And here's the KILLER... the cliffs behind Cameron in this pic are 600-700 feet tall. And they are NOT the biggest ones there. It's absolutely breathtaking. The SCOPE of what we were taking in was staggering.
From The Cliffs, we went to Bunratty Castle. The castle itself was something to see. We got to go inside, and it really was like a little time travel (as is so much of what we've seen so far). But... while I was expecting this stop on our trip to be just about the castle, the best parts of the stop came from everything else. There's a whole VERY old town there. Before spending a few hours poking around and seeing some more beautiful stuff, we started off having lunch in a little pub/restaurant place... there was live entertainment on a stage while we ate (traditional acoustic guitar, fiddle, accordian (SP?), singers and dancers. The food was GREAT... Irish Stew, bread, potatos, some excellent apple pie and ice cream, etc (times like these I'm REALLY happy I don't typically have to worry about weight gain... just another blessing for which I am grateful. But the best part came after... the boys were all invited up on stage and gave an impromptu concert. Very entertaining.
As I said, we're in Limerick this evening. And truth be told, I'm kind of glad this place is just serving as a 'lay-over'. Not much to do or see here, and frankly it's kinda 'blighted' looking. Everyone had dinner this evening. And then Cameron & I headed back to our room. We"ve got another busy day tomorrow. From here, we're heading toward Killarney. More on that later.
Take care, everybody.
dk