The Burren and the Cliffs of Moher

We had a long drive today and the weather was amazing, as it was sunny all day and warm.  The landscape changed a lot as we drove south.  The land in the north is so terrible that one cannot even run cattle on it, only sheep.  Once we got quite a lot further south, there are many more trees and small herds of cattle start to appear in the fields as well as some tillage.  The cities are also larger and the highway system is better as well.

We stopped just south of Galway for a coffee at a garden centre which had a great little café.  We sat by the window and a guy was planting into the window boxes.  Then the plant woman came along and told him how to rearrange the plants for far more pleasing effect.  We walked through the garden centre and the quality of bedding plants were just astounding.  I told the owner that I had never seen such fine bedding plants.

Then we came across tables of small arrangements of plants in pots, it had to be the work of the plant woman as they were so well done.  We took a couple of photos as they were so nice.

Senetti

Small Arrangements

We decided to go off our direct route to Co. Kerry by going through Co. Clare to have a look at ‘The Burren.’  This is a very bizarre landscape of bare limestone hills.  As it was such a gorgeous day, we also decided to stop at the Cliffs of Moher.  We had not really planned on seeing the Cliffs of Moher but the people in the walking group in Donegal thought that they should be seen even though we visited Slieve League.

The Burren

Co. Clare is somewhat touristy and the Cliffs of Moher are on the tourist must see list.  There is a large parking lot where they charge a lot just for parking.  We turned around and drove back down the road to a place that had cattle pens and gates where a few other cars were parked.  Then we simply walked up the cliffs.  The tourist section has a lot of steps and areas fenced off with large slabs of rock and there is tourist infrastructure there as well.

We walked most of the way along the cliffs, which took about an hour and a half, and then we walked back down the end of the cliffs to the car, this all worked out great.  There were quite a few people around, even in the off season.  This area is rather touristy and after coming from the north of Ireland, we are not used to tourists.

Cliffs of Moher