Sunday, September 23, 2007

Ireland, Day 2

Day 2 started at a late 12 PM. The goal of the day was to see the Cliffs of Moher. Since it takes 30 minutes for the hotel valet to retrieve our car, we decided to go shopping at a store across from the hotel. Daddy and Diego just browsed while Mama did the real shopping. Forty minutes later we were in our Jeep making the 2 hr drive to Liscannor, a small town near the cliffs. The hotel staff provided printed directions to which Mama insisted we follow. Daddy decided to use his new GPS toy to plot the trip. It wasn't long before we came a point where the directions differed from the GPS. Daddy insisted we follow the GPS route. Five minutes later the GPS had us exiting the highway (N18) at a point where the exit was closed for construction. At that time Daddy decided to use the GPS to get back to the directions provided by the hotel staff. Despite the occasional rain, the drive was very nice. The scenery was rolling hills of green pastures dotted with small towns and farms.

It wasn't long before we reached the parking area near the cliffs. Just as we parked it began to rain. We had no umbrella so we decided to wait in the Jeep until it passed. Mama used the time to feed Diego and change his diaper. Lucky for us the rain passed quickly. We then packed up the stroller and made our way up to the cliff's edge. Wheel chair access made it easy for us to push the stroller all the way to the top. As we approached you could hear the ocean crashing against the cliffs. Once at the top we took in the spectacular view. Our photos do little to capture the feeling of standing at the cliff's edge. We took several pictures from different locations then retreated back to the exhibition center. The exhibition center was very cool. It had a restaurant, gift shop and an area with huge screens displaying photos and facts about the cliffs. We only stayed about an hour then drove back into Liscannor for lunch. There we found a traditional Irish pub where we had 'fish and chips' (very good) then headed back to Limerick.

Once back at the hotel, we went to the lounge where Daddy tried 3 different Irish Whiskys. All very good. We found out the lounge manager was from Italy (Mama's home country). They chatted in Italian and we all discussed our travels and experiences. It all ended at midnight when we retired to our room. Mama went to bed because she had to work at 9 AM the next morning (go to the Dell plant). Diego was wide awake so Daddy pushed him around the hotel in the stroller until he finally went to sleep. Soon he was followed by Daddy.

1 comment:

lnewcomer said...

that looks cool. i'll have to try to make it up there before my trip is over.