The Cliffs of Moher

You've seen them before, in pictures, on postcards, they are stunning and really an amazing thing: the Cliffs of Moher, Aillte an Mhothair, in Irish. Pictures actually don't quite do them justice, but I've got a few to show you, just because: 

Because it's not all the scenery in the distance you know.  Sometimes you have to look down.

 Which can be just a bit scary, but worth it.

 The thing is though, all of these pictures are taken at least two kilometers from the visitor's area where you park.  If you want to get out to this lonely watchtower, you have to commit to a pretty solid two hour walk, more if you stop to take pictures and such like we did.

We started out on a kind of blustery Irish morning, it was kind of spitting rain, but as I noted in Scotland, that is sort of par for the course.  The visitor's center was already starting to get busy, and Michele wisely decided to stop and buy a nice knit Ireland cap.  After a stop in the loo, we pretty much went straight out to the cliffs, bypassing the castle tower and other tourist claptrap.  I wanted to walk, after flying and driving for the better part of yesterday, I needed boots on the ground.  I wasn't altogether sure that Michele was going to be up for what I could tell was going to be quite a hike, with a bit of up and down and unsure footing, especially given that it was cold by most people's standards.  We put on our Irish gear and headed up and out along the ridge of the Cliffs of Moher, and we walked, we passed people speaking all sorts of languages, we walked through wind that would just about blow you over, we took lots of pictures, and after about an hour and half, we reached that lonely, crumbling watchtower that stands guard over the Cliffs of Moher.  Then we turned and walked back.

As we came over the crest of the last ridge we noticed that something had changed: the sun came out, and with it so had about eight million visitors (hyberbole), more tour buses than I could count.  We basically had to wait in line down the narrow trail from the furthest observation point within the actual visitors area.  I thought, "thank God for the Irish rain," because otherwise it probably would have been that mobbed all day.  As it turns out, this is the way of things, if it's really amazing and beautiful, you're probably not the only one who wants to see it.  We found this to be the case with the castles of Scotland and now with the Irish coast.

Tourism lesson: walk a little farther and don't be afraid of a little rain.  Actually I guess that's probably true in most of life, you're welcome.