Éire go brách!

I recently had another opportunity to visit Ireland for business and again (due mostly to the price of tickets over the weekend) I was able to spend the weekend in Dublin. This is my third visit that included a weekend, so I decided this time to roam outside the city. Ideally, I would have liked to rent a vehicle and travel the countryside myself, but this time I didn't think I had the time and/or resources to do such. Instead, I turned to the professionals to show me the sights.

The tour I opted for is operated by Rail Tours Ireland and promised to take me to "The Cliffs of Moher, Bunratty Castle, The Burren and Galway Bay". Being a big fan of rocks (it comes with having a fascination with rock climbing), this sounded like a good place to start. The tour started off with a two hour train ride to Limerick, on the western coast of Ireland. There we switched to the bus that drove us around for the majority of the day. The dark red light is our path for the day, with the trip starting off going the southern route and then returning by the northern route. The first stop on the bus tour was at Bunratty Castle, which wasn't really what I had previously thought of when I heard the word castle. It's an impressive building, sure, but just not what I was expecting.

Although it's not very big, it was complete with a dungeon, turrets, and beautiful stained glass windows. The majority of the adornments are authentic from the same time as the castle, but actually came from other castles. This includes the furniture and glass windows.

Outside the castle is a folk park designed to mimic the style of the time when the castle was in active use.

This features reconstructions of historical cottages and buildings, recreating the general feel of the 19th century with a period style village main street. Old tools, furniture and artefacts are displayed, with the village kept alive by some inhabited shops, an old home bakery and peat fires in cottages. --Wikipedia

This included thatched roofs, waterwheels, and a church.

After the castle we started the part of the tour I really was interested in - seeing the Cliffs of Moher and then the countryside. The first stop was at a O' Connor's pub in Doolin, where I had an unexpected surprise:

Yes, that sticker is from the very pub I mentioned in a previous post - one of my favorite Irish pubs in the DC area! The view outside the pub was awesome, even despite the bad weather:

The Cliffs of Moher were incredibly crowded, but were very impressive to see. Careful examination leads me to believe these would be very climbable, except for the lack of somewhere to stand at the bottom. With some proper traditional gear and a little gumption, these would prove to be an enjoyable climb.

The Irish, apparently, do not always follow directions. The paths past the "do not cross" signs were very well trampled. The guards also seemed to ignore the trespass.

After the cliffs the bus proceeded down some very narrow and very twisty roads. Quite a few times we had issues passing other traffic, including one very close incident with a huge excavator that prompted the entire bus to applaud when the driver made it through without incident.

After a little while on these roads we arrived at The Burren, a very barren part of the west coast of Ireland where large limestone fields dominate the landscape. We got a chance to see some of these, and they proved to be quite photogenic:

Our guide told us that a large variety of species end up growing in the cracks between the limestone, likely due to deposits left by the various birds. Plants that wouldn't be normally found in Ireland can be found here, including some very nice flowers.

Our bus is off in the distance in this picture:

I spy rock climbers!

After that, it was more coastline driving and a few more scenic shots.

All in all, the rail tour was a lot of fun, but I probably won't go for that sort of thing again. Rail Tours Ireland was nothing but professional, but I'm just not really suited for that type of adventure. I'm too independent when it comes to travel, and I'd rather not be directed everywhere. Schedules don't belong on vacations, either, and we were definitely constrained by time the entire tour. I ended up leaving my hotel at about 0600 on Saturday morning and didn't return until 2200. I was lucky that the hotel was right beside the train station where the tour started and stopped, or my day would have been even longer. Next time I'll rent a vehicle or get a cheap flight to somewhere else in Europe.

On Sunday I took a quick bus and walking tour of the city where I took a few more interesting pictures. A busker making sand sculptures