Vacation Day Six-The Cliffs of Moher and Thank God I'm Not at the ACL Music Festival

That dog's name is Bosby. Saw him at Ross Castle. I have no idea what kind of dog he is, but I do know that he's much more attractive than the lady holding his leash. Yikes, that was not a good looking couple. Bosby sure was friendly though.

It rained pretty hard through the night, waking me up a couple of times. But that's no mean feat, I barely get to sleep as it is. All my crimes and closet skeletons obviously have my consciousness running at ultra high octane. Oddly enough, having not seen rain for more than three months, its literally rained off and on every day I've been here, so I'm becoming an Irish rain expert. That was the first time since I've been here that it outright rained really hard for a long time. I awoke to a sunny day though...and the beginnings of a sinus infection. You may have seen photos with some yellow blooming flowers. If those are the same flowers that bloom around this time in California, its no surprise. Those things set off the last really bad sinus infection I had, which took about a week to get over. Excellent. Can't wait.

By the time I dragged myself out of bed and down to breakfast, most of the golfers had already gone. Out to the links no doubt. One couple was still there, telling the owner about how they were touring the Dingle Peninusla yesterday in the pouring rain, but they pulled over at the Dingle Golf Club and still played nine holes. They said there was a foursome of 80-something year old guys in front of them, so they figured that if those guys could get up and down, they could do. The fact that they were playing through a storm I guess just didn't dawn on them as a reason to stay in the car. I guess if the Bishop could have set the club record in a driving lightning storm in Caddyshack, this couple could have done no less. After all, I don't think the heavy stuff is going to come down for awhile. What makes golf so addictive? Why would all these people spend a small fortune, correction, large fortune, to come over here to play...golf? Its not like there's not bizillions of golf courses in the USA. Unless you're at Pebble Beach or St. Andrews or Augusta National, isn't every golf course pretty much like every other golf course? Still, I guess you could say the same thing about running. Any time I go to a new city, I MUST get in a run. Even though running is basically running. Its new scenery. Still, these guys have to spend a lot more time and money than lacing up your sneaks and heading out for a bit.

Oh, and five minutes after I came down for breakfast it had clouded over and was raining. Five minutes. Literally. Then 15 minutes later it was sunny. I thought Texas weather was weird, but this is just insane. It never really stops raining.

Yesterday, and I skipped over this because I was so tired, I heard a really interesting radio report. I like to listen to local radio when I go on a trip, especially talk radio or local news. Its a way to get a handle on what people think. Well, the weirdo people who call radio talk shows at least. Its not perfect; it would be like thinking that all the hard core right wing types who call Ed and Sergeant Sam in the morning (590 KLBJ in Austin) represent the typical Austin attitude. Cause they don't. Anyway, there was a story that the English rugby team captain, who is married to a royal, was caught at a dwarf tossing contest making out with some hot blonde. Now, I don't understand the problem. Dwarf tossing? Psshhaw! Charles Barkley sees nothing wrong with that. Making out with a blonde? I thought that's why guys became famous athletes. Doing it while married to a royal? I thought that's what all those people did, like Prince Charles and his horse-face mistress (sorry, horse lovers, didn't mean to insult horses there). They're making a big deal out of it around here, which is weird. Obviously they're not following the NFL, where guys drive drunk and kill people and still get to play on Sundays. Or who have nine kids with eight different women, only a few of whom were with his wife. Once again, these Euros are putting on all kinds of airs about stuff that just really doesn't matter.

First up on today's tour was Ross Castle. Built in the 1400s by the O'Donoughues, they resisted Cromwell and had the castle taken from them. Later the English used it as a military garrison. Its located in Killarney National Park on Lough Leane, and has a fantastic view of the lake. Lake tours depart from the Castle as well. Its a ruin, of course, but still seems in remarkable shape. Its the "tower" type of castle, basically one houge tower where all the action happened, surrounded by high defensive walls. A good part of the wall remains intact. I skipped the tour. After all, you've seen one 15th century Irish castle, you've seen them all.

From there I departed on the three and a half hour drive to the Cliffs of Moher. Again, it was the usual program of rain, followed by clearing, followed by rain, and so forth. I passed some wind generation towers about an hour north of Killarney. With all the west coast wind, I'd have been surprised if Ireland hadn't been pursuing wind energy development. I took a ferry across the River Shannon to avoid having to travel through Limerick, which would have added a couple of hours to the trip. My guide book advertises Limerick along the lines of it beginning to escape its reputation as an industrial center and a site of "internecene gang warfare," which doesn't sound promising. I could have saved a bunch of money and seen the same thing by going to Laredo. The ferry was pretty rough. The water was really choppy and kicking up over the deck. The clouds were pretty thick and it was raining pretty good. Surprised I didn't start yakking all over the place.

After driving more winding two lane roads through the rain, I made it to the Cliffs of Moher. They run for about 2/3 of a mile just north of the mouth of the Shannon. They were formed by an ancient river hundreds of millions of years ago. They're about 700 feet above the ocean, and looking down from the top is a really awesome experience. It was a pretty horrible day, with light rain, heavy clouds and mist, and incredibly strong winds. I haven't been blown like that since [insert joke here]. So the weather diminished the viewing experience somewhat. I've seen photos of the Cliffs at sunset, with the setting sun brilliantly illuminating the moss covered cliffs and it looks like quite a spectacle. It also reminded me of the California coast. Driving around West Ireland these last few days, its struck me that the area very much resembles California, at least along the coast north of Carmel and on up to the Oregon border. Lots of green rolling hills, dramatic coastal cliffs and beaches, and winding two lane roads (to wit, the PCH). I've been blessed to have spent as much time in the Golden State as I have, and will keep returning throughout my life (until the money runs out or I go mental).

I left the Cliffs around 4:30, hoping to get into Galway before nightfall. I passed through the town of Burren and briefly stopped to see Dunguaire Castle. It too was right on the water, and seemed well preserved. Photos are on flickr.

I also passed through The Burren. This is a very rocky (largely limestone), arid region of some size, where vegetation either doesn't grow or is extremely sparse. Basically it looks something like the moon, with some green here and there. I had planned to get checked in to my hotel in Galway and return to the Burren the next day, but from what I can tell, it looks like just another wasteland, like those old oil fields out in west Texas where they basically ruined the topsoil, or Pasadena ("nothing could be keener than to be in Pasadena...." yeah I saw Urban Cowboy).

I made it into Galway, Ireland's third largest city, right as the Friday rush hour was peaking and the rain and muck was resuming. My hotel is right in the city center, where the roads all run helter skelter in every direction, and the traffic flow patterns kept me from reaching the hotel itself until I passed it four times. I even got trapped behind a youth hostel, thinking that the service road actually ran through to the road where I could reach my hotel. Trying to back out, I knocked over a recycle bin full of beer and wine bottles, which dumped a bunch of broken glass onto the road where I needed to back out. Yikes! So in the rain, and the dark, I had to clear all that crap out of the way so I could get my car through. Nothing like the glamorous life of a lawyer!

I finally made it though, and got settled into my fairly nice hotel (Forster Square Hotel). Then I walked down to the local entertainment district, finding the number of pubs and bars greatly exceeding the number of restaurants. Hey this is a college town, so go figure that there appeared to be tons of kids roaming around the town at night. I ate at a Mediterranean place called Vina Mara, which had a fairly nice three course meal menu. I had some excellent vegetable soup, chicken breast wrapped in bacon with tomatoes and (you guessed it, potatoes) with some Irish cheeses for dessert. The waitress was from Holland and couldn't understand me. She learned english in Ireland, so she doesn't understand American "accents." She said mine was the worst of all, which actually made me feel pretty good. After dinner, amazingly, I did my hotel workout routine, even though it was 11 p.m. But I did feel much better after.

Finally, I noted that this weekend is the ACL Music Festival. As I write this, Stevie Wonder is the headliner playing tonight. I've never been to ACL. When the damn thing's not on fire, its usually about 120 degrees most of the day, and they jam 70,000 people into a space probably big enough for half that much. I get my music festival itch scratched every year at the New Orleans Jazz Festival; that's usually always enough for one year. But I hope everyone going to ACL has a good time, paying extortionate ticket prices and slagging through the heat.

Next-A Day in Galway