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August 4: Cliffs of Moher

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We woke up late (9:15 am), since I didnt set the alarm properly ! Rushed and grabbed some breakfast! Today, the plan was to hike the Cliffs of Moher - here, for 5 miles or so, the dramatic cliffs soar as high as 650-700 feet above the wild Atlantic ocean ! We walked along the entire length of the Cliffs of Moher - 12 -13 km (7-8 miles) , making it a day full of exercise!  The hiking trail from Hags Head to Doolin: We took the Paddywagon bus to the start of the trail at Hags Head. A light drizzle had started by this time and I was not dressed for rainy weather. The bus driver was a friendly guy and suggested we do not give up and that the day would clear up in a bit !   You can see the Hags Head, behind me in the below picture. This is the start of the trail. We were hoping to have the hiking path all to ourselves, but there were a lot of other folks as well ! Guess, we have to share :-) The trail is on the property of some 30 farmers an...
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August 10: Good Bye Ireland

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We return home today after a wonderful vacation in beautiful Ireland. We drove close to 1600 km (~ 1000 miles) all around the island ! We are fortunate to have experienced the exquisite beauty of the Irish landscape and the warmth and humor of the Irish people. We were booked on United to Newark via Washington DC. However, when we checked in, we were informed that we were re-routed via London. So, it was Dublin-London on Aer Lingus and London-Newark on United. We reached home at a reasonable time and the flights were actually comfortable ! I quickly read up on Irish history again from the guidebook -- it was fascinating and i could grasp and relate to it so much more after all the places we visited ! Beautiful Dublin from the aircraft. As the Irish say, we had a "savage craic" time in Ireland 😄😄😄 What we would change in our itinerary to have a better trip: Make it a 12 day trip :-) 1. On the day we land after a trans-atlantic flight, try to minimize driv...
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August 2, 2018: Skelling Michael & Ring of Kerry

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A visit to the Skellig Michael mountain is the highlight of our trip. Some of you may know this location from Star Wars - The Force Awakening, where Rey and Chewbacca land on this rock to meet Luke Skywalker. The Ring of Kerry is a 120 mile loop drive we took to get to Skellig Michael. We drove only part of the loop, but it was spectacular! Skellig Michael is a jagged isolated pyramid-shaped mountain , > 700 feet tall and located ~7 miles into the sea.  It also has a twin rock, called Little Skellig which is closed to the public. These are some of the most westernly parts of Ireland. It has a monastery  of igloo-like huts built by monks in the sixth century to live in isolation and be closer to God, weathering winter storms and viking invasions. Around 1100 AD, it was abandoned due to unlivable conditions as well as pressure from the  powerful church to bring the monks in line with stricter Catholicism ! The beehive huts are connect...
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