Sunday tour to Cliffs of Moher

After a sleeping as late as we dared, we ate some breakfast and headed in to Galway to catch a tour bus going to the Cliffs of Moher. The drive in was beautiful. I'm sure we drove by land characteristic of the Burren, if we weren't driving through the Burren itself. I guess I should suggest that they have a narrator for the bus ride if at all feasible, because there were plenty of towns and landscapes I'm sure I'd love to have heard more about. The drive in was also a drive up, and I couldn't sit by the window. It was far enough to look down from the bus window when we weren't on the edge of a mountain, dizzying when we were.

We enjoyed the drizzly weather, and even the rain shower that hit while we were up there, but it wasn't so great for getting photos. 

Something we saw on the bus ride up the mountains. Google info says that it's in Kinvarra, County Galway.

Another shot from the bus along the way

We made it!

Here are some of my best shots, taken from some of the higher places I reached. I wimped out of climbing to the top of the tower.

And a couple of short videos:

Joseph, Chelsea and Emma climbed the stairs to the top of the tower:

And here are some shots I took of the photos inside the Visitors' Center, because that was the only way I was going to get any sunshine-y shots:

And here's a little info and some art featuring the birds that hang out around here. We saw some puffins in the distance. Again, not my photos.

The bus driver had asked us to all be back by a quarter to four, but something was wrong with the engine, so we sat in the bus for an hour and a half, waiting for that to get sorted. On the way back, we saw a rainbow. The arch seemed shallower than those of rainbows we're used to seeing. Was it because we were closer to the North Pole than we're used to being? It also seemed like it would be somehow easier to find the end of that rainbow. We marveled, all week long, at the lateness of the onset of dusk.

Took this picture on the car ride back to our cottage, from Galway to somewhere near Quin. Noted the time. Not sure how I did that, but I wrote it in with my finger.