Pat the Leprechaun on the head and politely ask for good weather :)

On the Tour Bus

The Tour Mascots

Saturday, September 10th: Today, we woke early and had the Galway Tour Company pick us up at 9am for the Cliffs of Moher tour. I knew I wanted to go to the Cliffs of Moher because everyone told me it was a must while I was in Galway, but then I started reading the brochure and I found out that the Cliffs of Moher are also the Cliffs on Insanity in The Princess Bride, which is my favorite movie of all time! I was so so so excited!!! As the tour began our driver/tour guide introduced himself as Desmond and gave us all his phone number in case we got lost or needed a recommendation for a great pub or needed a guide for the next time we were in Galway. Desmond was about 75 years old and turned out to be the cutest and funniest old man ever!

The Amazing Lunch Place

So, the tour started and as we drove Desmond told us more about the surrounding area and what we were driving past than I thought would be possible. He told us history, stories, myths, jokes...it was great! Our first stop on the tour was a really, really monastery/cemetery. It was beautiful with this big giant church and all these old, old graves. Then we traveled on to what used to be an Irish military fort. Now all it is is a little fence you have to walk through and then this really pretty meadow(y) area with trees and clovers and Desmond told us that's were fairies and leprechauns now live and if you didn't believe in them then they would come and play tricks on you and climb up your pant legs haha. Anyway, it was really beautiful! Next, we stopped in the limestone covered area where there were really old above ground tombs. The limestone was awesome to look at and made the landscape really interesting and the tombs were awesome!

The Cliffs of Moher

Aka The Cliffs of Insanity!

Then, normally on the tours (Desmond had been doing this tour for 18 1/2 years) they would take us to the Cliffs of Moher and we could get lunch, see the cliffs, go to the visitors center/museum etc... But, Desmond said that once you go to the Cliffs and once you had lunch you had no time to see the Cliffs before the tour had to leave. (Oh and btw even though we were being followed or were at the tail in of at least 4 other tours, Desmond knew when do drive slow or speed up or skip things that he didn't think were worth it or take us to things that would waste a little time but were cool (like the old fort). So that way every stop we got to we were either the first to get there and were just about to leave when the other tours arrived, or we were just arriving when the other tours were leaving. It was awesome). So, normally they would make you eat at the super touristy place at the Cliffs but instead Desmond took us to this cute little town on the way and we stopped at a very Irish pub and had lunch there. Desmond had menus on the coach so we just had to go in, order at the bar, and then they brought us our food within 5 minutes. I had this unbelievable seafood chowder with salmon, cod, muscles and crab. It was SO good!!    
Then we got back on the bus and drove to the cliffs! The cliffs were absolutely amazing!!! They are bigger than I expected and so beautiful! We had great weather the entire day! Blue skies for part of the tour but no rain (expect we were sitting on the bus and it didn't matter)! The Cliffs were not covered in fog which apparently happens a lot. We could see them really clearly! The place was not packed and over crowded. All in all it was perfect and I can't wait to go back!!

The Castle on the other side of the Cliffs 

After the cliffs we started headed back to Galway with a few little stops on the way, one of which was a beautiful old castle with swans in the water below it! So pretty! But mainly I started to fall asleep on the ride back until Desmond decided to play the song Galway Girl over and over until everyone was singing along haha.Once home I made a kick butt grilled cheese sandwich with turkey and it was perfect!

Over all it was an awesome day and one of the best tours I have ever been on! I can't wait to see the Cliffs of Moher again!! xo