DAY TOUR TO GALWAY...

Yesterday, seven other classmates and I went on a day trip to Galway to see the Cliffs of Moher. (Some pronounce that mo-her, with a very soft "her")

Please don't forget that I'm going on just two nights of about 2.5 hours of sleep each night!

(I think I'm lookin' a little rough here!)

This was my first sign of the ocean...in this picture the bay is in the background. Several of these pictures are from inside a train or coach, so if it seems like there's a strange reflection over the picture, it's probably a reflection off the glass, but I didn't want to leave the pics out!

This is one of many ruined watchtowers that dot the landscape! They were installed to prevent French invasion, but not very useful, or too useful as they say, since they were never invaded!

The quality of this pic is so poor, but I really loved seeing all the ruined structures as they're slowly being consumed by ivy plants! :)

This is the Dungaire castle!

For a fee you can tour the inside, but we only had 10 minutes here, and I wanted to explore and photograph the outside!

Of course I travelled off the beaten path...or at least off the paved path, and found this little walkway that encircled the castle! I had several followers after I was the brave leader! :)

(Looking up the castle wall from a bed of wild flowers and plants below.)

I hate to be picky when someone offers to take a pic, but come on! I would have rather the castle been in the pic and a little less of the asphalt! :P

This is the Corcomroe Abbey. Unfortunately we weren't able to stop to go inside, but Wikipedia says this was built in the late 1100s and was still used until the early 1600s.

I loved seeing the thatch roofs! After leaving the Cliffs of Moher, we even saw a gentleman up on a ladder making some repairs to his. The tour guide said his home was over 300 years old! You can't quite see it in the pic, but there's typically very decorative weaving at the tops! I've seen some amazing decorative thatch roofs since, but usually wasn't able to get my camera out fast enough to capture them. :(

Another watchtower.

I think it's incredible how the terrain starts to change here! This is the rocky West coast of Ireland. I love the criss-cross of the stone floor in this picture!

The stone floor here was so beautifully smooth from all the years of glacial-sanding! It really looked as if God just had a really big piece of sandpaper and smoothed over all the spiky edges!

Another ruined something! Sooooo beautiful! =)