Day 17 Saturday 30th May 2009 Killarney-Galway-Dublin

Day 17 Saturday 30th May 2009. Killarney-Galway-Dublin
Today we move on firstly by coach to Galway and then train to Dublin. At 9am we left the hotel in a very large luxury coach driven by Paul our driver of yesterday. The seats are leather and four lucky passengers have tables to place their maps etc on. The countryside was not good farming country; there were bull rushes in the paddocks and the grass was not lush. The hills were partially obscured by haze. Our first stop was at Adare where we had morning tea. Our driver told us where to look for some nicely thatched cottages so I went in search for them; yes they were nice. The farms improved from here on for a while. As we passed through Limerick driver Paul pointed out the stadium where the Irish beat the All Blacks. We passed through a seaside resort with lots of well kept holiday homes and a golf course where the grass covered sand hill like terrain, was a foot high between the putting greens except for the mown strip footpaths; easy to lose your balls here. We were now heading for the Cliffs of Moher. The bus started to slog up a very narrow country lane edged on both sides by stonewalls, every now and then stooping to let vehicles coming from the opposite direction to pass safely. Passing other big busses was particularly tricky. For the amount of traffic on the road it should really be widened. I hope they never do though, as the narrow lanes between the walls make the up the scenery and give tourists like us a thrill. The Irish have certainly made good business out of the cliffs. The neatly laid stone paths and walls through green grass fields of grazing cattle lead gently up to viewing platforms at the top of the 204meter sea cliffs. The cliffs are of hard black rock; it will take millions of years for them to wear away. Built under the grassy slopes behind and the cliffs were gift shops, rest rooms and a cafe where we had our lunch. After we left this spot we drove through a lot more very narrow roads; it was a slow trip. As we approached Burren high round topped light grey hills appeared in the distance. They looked like they had solid rock surface. I wondered why the rock walls from the green paddocks below continued up the mountains; as we got closer we could see small patches of green vegetation between the rocks, so I guess every bit of grass was being made use of. The houses we passed were all well maintained. I find it difficult to recall any that were not. They were mostly of individual design and painted in pastel shades. The roofs were all slate tiles; real slate, not bitumastic as we saw in England. I cannot recall a timber house anywhere we arrived at Galway at just after 4pm. There was a Volvo sponsored yacht race on which caused traffic chaos. Our train was scheduled to leave at 6:05pm arriving in Dublin at 8:47pm. I left Fay at the station in search of a supermarket to buy our evening meal. I found one quite close to the station. I bought 2 fresh white bread rolls, 2 pieces of ham, an egg salad for me, an apple pie and a trifle for Fay. We dined on the train. When I arrived back at the station I could hardly believe the hoards of people that I had to fight my way through to get back to the waiting room where our group was waiting. I was having thoughts that we may not get on the train so I asked some of them what train they were catching. There was only one platform. They replied to my relief, “the 5:45pm.” It was 5:45pm before they started to load; someone said the train was our train and even though I tried to tell them no they kept going only to return again through the masses. Only half of the people on the platform were allowed to get on, then the guards let a few families with young children on. The train left a ¼hour late and delayed our train. There was still a large crowd. Our train then came for us to load onto after it was due to have left. We had to really fight our way through. The station attendant confused us with another tour group and sent us to the wrong end of the train to a coach that was already full. Back we went again trailing our heavy bags through the tightly bunched crowd. Eventually we found our seats and with relief sat down. What a shemozzle! I will never forget it. We arrived in Dublin at 9:30pm and after a 400meter walk we were at our hotel. We were in bed as quickly as we could as we had to be up at 5:30am for an early start to catch the ferry back to Wales. We had completed a whirlwind tour through picturesque Southern Ireland.