Tuesday and Wednesday

Note: these photos are all Dan's, stolen with permission. :)

Tuesday definitely made up for Monday's disappointments. Our adventures entailed a lot of driving, but Dan made it without gasping, pulling his arm in from a not-opened window (when the shrubbery was a little close) or having a heart attack when I passed other vehicles. Cody, on the other hand, was chill in the backseat, except for when I was going round curves faster than he cared for. 

We covered lots of territory in windy, sometimes rainy, weather. We started with shopping, spending time in a store managed by Mrs. Doubtfire. She was very kind and patient. We then headed to Doolin Cave, which was a much better experience than the other cave. We actually had to wear hardhats, which came in handy because some of the passages are low and you will hit your head. Here, Cody and I model the hard hats for you:

In this cave, we saw an 8-meter tall stalactite. That's like 24 feet long in American. It was huge. This stalactite beat the hell out of the pitiful lttle things that we saw in the "Alaweeny Cave," as Cody now calls it. I'm stealing of of Dan's photos to show you:

As in the previously mentioned cave, the guide turned out all of the lights so that we could see nothing. Not surprisingly, we could see nothing. However, I imagine what it must have been like for the two cavers who discovered this cave, crawling belly-first into this pitch-black cavern and shining their flashlights on this puppy. Me, I would have been scared shitless because this thing is really, really big and it hangs from the ceiling like a big ghosty banshee thing. Of course, it doesn't blow in the wind like a banshee would, but there's no wind in this cavern so why would it blow? It would just hang there, waiting to scare some poor innocent souls who had just crawled on their bellies through a never-before-discovered cave. I would also be scared that it would fall, because it weighs 5.5 tons. How does it stay up there? Nature has some serious crazy glue. 

So after that adventure, we walked around the area, looking at the flora and fauna. 

We were also trying to avoid some of the other tourists (not pictured...) Damned foreigners; they talk too loudly and drive too slowly. We had already had our fill of them at the B&B, where a foursome enjoyed bothering others at breakfast with things such as makings farting noises with their hands. And these people were older than we were. GEEZus. 

So then, we tooled around until we found old stuff to see. This included some old churches, the Dysert O'Dea castle, and abandoned houses. 

Churches. This one is in Ennis, a medieval town with streets the size of those you'd find in a medieval town. It has been taken over by the OPW (the national group that takes care of old shit) and turned into a museum/heritage site. 

This is the old altar area. 

This is outside of the church, where some of the graveyard is. In many of the churches we've seen, there have been headstones inside as well. 

You'll see here that there are gravestones in the ground. Most aren't legible. 

More church stuff from somewhere else (maybe Quinn?):

And here are some photos from the castle of Dysert O'Dea. Many of the castles here were built up rather than out, as they seem to be in other parts of Europe. 

On the way home, we ran into (not literally) these lovelies being taken home for the evening. 

And the, we took a drive along the road above Doolin.

Cody and Dan want to buy this to renovate:

The view would be great, but I'm not sure that renovation would really be feasible...

On Wednesday, the weather cleared enough for us to board a ferry to the Aran Islands. Dan is going to post about that, but here's a photo of us getting ready to sail the Atlantic:

There were some serious swells when we were going out and coming in, but the Murrells and their stomachs survived without incident. :)