Ferries, Cliffs, Rivers and Roads

Our morning in Killarney started out on an unusual note. We were met outside our hotel by Paul, a jarvey and Sweeney, the horse that would pull our jaunting cart for a ride around Killarney. Paul was great- so informative and chatty and, to top it all of, a Liverpool fan! It wasn't too chilly and the sky was not too cloudy so certainly an enjoyable ride.

We started off at St. Mary's Cathedral, the Catholic church in Killarney, but not to be confused with St. Mary's Church, which is the Protestant church. The jaunt took us around the city centre, through the important parts of town, including where we had been for dinner the night before, and then out to Ross Castle.

Unlike Kilkenney Castle, Ross Castle is clearly made for defense. By being built right on the lake, it reduces the amount of sides an enemy can attack from and the architecture, especially the windows and numerous guard towers. The view was absolutely gorgeous though- so quiet and serene.



The jaunt around Killarney showed us all we needed to see so, taking a recommendation from Paul, we decided to forego Limerick and Bunratty Castle and instead headed north through Tralee to the River Shannon and the ferry crossing.
We passed through some sweet, quaint little Irish town, all which had some crazy colored houses.
The roads weren't too bad but at times we would get stuck.... behind tractors. Classic.
I was so excited for the ferry because the last time I Had been on one was in the Caribbean. It wasn't a very long ride but it wasn't too cold and we had a great view of the river Shanon. Often you can see dolphins but we sadly weren't that lucky.





From there we drove through Kilrush to the western coast of Ireland. We got a lot of views of beautiful beaches and stopped at a few of them. It was so cold and windy but that didn't stop me from climbing out on the rock jetties as far as I could before I hit water.


We drove through towns like Quilty and Spanish Point and Lisdoonvarna until we reached the Cliffs of Moher. They were absolutely breathtaking- so far up with a long path winding through the cliffs, from O'Brien's Tower to the southern end. We walked down and then back up the paths, peering down when we could at the sea below.







From the Cliffs, we drove through an area called the Burren to get to Galway. The Burren is mostly marked by large rock formations and various caves, altough we didn't have time to go to any of the caves. It was a stark change from the green and clifs we had previously been looking at for most of the day and we wound through switchbacks through the large stone slabs.


We made it to Galway in one piece, got some dinner and watched Liverpool beat Pompey 4-1. Excellent!