5. Ireland Day 3

Previous to this I have been breaking up my days into 2 seperate posts. I have decided to make one long one for Day three so I hope you stay for the whole ride. Sit back and enjoy, I hope. The day began with a car ride, destination, Cliffs of Moher. As I rode in the now famous Mini I tried to snap shots of the countryside. I feel this picture just about sums it up, green pastures filled with fluffy sheep and stone walls. Aw, can you smell the fresh air?

Of course EVERY road trip no matter what country your in must include atleast one potty break! We stopped at pretty much the only petrol station known to have a potty on the way, it was a Tesco station. I loved the snack counter. If you take a moment to enlarge the image it's like a "Where's Waldo". There is everything in here from Curlywurlys to Hunky Dorys!

On our trip you always get the munchies so as we were driving along Erynne asked David to find a little place to pull over and have our picnic. He spotted just the perfect pull off right infront of a castle, what could have been better? I was just so excited to be having a picinic infront of a castle. Did I mention I had lunch by a castle?

Come to find out, David is not only a fabulous Tour Guide but he's an out of this world "side of the road out of the boot of a Mini in freezing cold temps, sandwich maker"! What a sport, he made the best roadside sandwich ever while us girls ran around giddy with delight taking pictures of everything we could find., including eachother.

My first up close and personal look. Belly full of sandwich and camera in hand, Look Out World!

I just LOVE this picture of Erynne and I. The perspective David gets really makes you feel like you are there at the base feeling the weight of all that stone and history. We pranced around taking in the views. There was no sign that we could find for this castle so Erynne and David have dubbed it "Rachel's Castle".

After our lunch we continued on our journey and reach The Cliffs of Moher. The shear grandour will take your breath away. At this moment I really wished that Brian were with me as he loves nothing more than the open ocean. He loves water and would love to live on or near it.

Erynne stuck our her arm, and said "That way to Brian and America". I took a moment paused and then waved at him. He says that he saw me but I just wonder!

Typical me, trying to get a good shot, sheilding the camera from the low sun.

Don't worry, they've built walls so you can no longer walk to the edge and jump to your death.

Can you hear the wind, the gulls, the waves and my squeals of delight?

Long long long way down.

Before we left I took a moment to strike a pose and Erynne captured the moment. I think that this image goes a long way to sum up my giddy delight at being with such great friends on such a wonderful trip.

Now, here is where I take a moment to make a little interesting side note. Brian and I have our own Land Surveying company, we basically make maps. Also another little tid bit of info, when I was a little girl my father would hand me the map and say "Here is where we are and here is where we are going for vacation. Now, you study this map and plan the route". So basically what I am saying here is that I, Rachel Mohler know how to read a map. Well let me tell you, after we left The Cliffs of Moher we got a little lost as David's Garmin didn't have all the little roads programed into it (not David's fault :). He hands me a map and says "Find where we are and where we need to go". He gave me the name of our destination and as I search the map I find where we need to be headed but what's this? Um David my dear there are NO names on these roads!!!!! I know maps and this isn't a map. I mean a piece of paper with little dots for towns and squiggly little lines running between them (I can only assume those are roads) does not a map make! The directions to get to our destination pretty much went a little something like this "go South a tiny bit, turn West then go North a bit". Not really the sort of directions one would be used to giving or getting. It made for a very interesting trip as the sun was setting and we were using the last rays of light to get to our final destination. Would there be enough light to see and take pictures? Well you'll just have to read on to find out :)

The sun was indeed kissing the horizon but as you can see we did get some nice photos in before we had to say goodbye to our friend the Sun. This is the Poulnabrone Portal Tomb. This dates back about 4,500 years and is located in The Burren in County Clare.

The landscape here is just spectacular.

The moon was out and all was quiet on The Burren.

Don't worry, I obey posted signs. One mustn't upset the 4,500 year old spirits. I adopt the "walk softly and carry a good camera" philosophy.

The landscape as much as the Tomb itself fascinated me.

As we walked back to our car a sort of silence befell upon us as our day was at an end. What a day it was. Time to head home and have some Guinness with friends.

This concludes Day 3 of our broadcast day. I hope you have enjoyed it and as always feel free to leave a comment here and let us know what you thought.

Next time on The Adventures of the Traveling Bean will Rachel get to watch her first Rugby game? Tune in next time to find out!