Yesterday, June 8th, our Tour Guide, (Fergus again from Celtic Limo) took us on a whorl-wind tour that lasted for 10 hours!!!  First stop was Galway city!  One of my sisters got a beautiful Aran knit sweater and I got a beautiful wool Irish Celtic Ruana Wrap in a shop our guide told us sells authentic made in Ireland products.  I would love to get a sweater, but I am allergic to wool and it makes me rashy and itchy!  So I settled for a wrap that you would wear over a light jacket!  But I really like the pattern and am very happy with it!!!

When we left Galway we headed for the Burren.  This area of 250 square kilometers is a strange place where there is very little soil, just slabs of limestone rock with over 700 different kinds of ferns and flowering plants growing in the cracks!  And right in the middle of all this rock is a 5000 year old Portal Tomb called Poulnabrone Dolman!  It was foggy and misty when we were there so it made the tomb look even more mysterious!  Then we headed for Connemara and Kylemore Abby!  A very long drive through absolutely stunning country!  The only hiccup was that there was scaffolding over about a 3rd of the Abby!  I still got some good shots and the walled garden was beautiful.  On the way there we made a quick stop at a little bridge made famous in the movie "The Quite Man" with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara!

It was a long way back, but again, through breathtaking county!

Today we took a boat out to the closest of the three Aran Islands, Inis Oirr (pronounced Inisheer).  It was a bit rough going out but we had a lovely tour and lunch and I got great photos of the hundreds upon hundreds of stone walls!  On the way back (out was about 30 minutes and in was about 1 1/4 hours) we went to the base of the Cliffs of Moher.  Only problem was it started raining shortly after we left the island!  So it rained when we went to the top of the cliffs, and it rained when we went to the bottom of the cliffs.  But this is Ireland!!!  This is why it is so green!