Day 12

The bed is surprisingly comfortable and we sleep well.
The shower holds no surprises now and is warm and flows well without the very common nipple piercing pressure of some.
We raid the Free Food for our breakfast and do well with fresh filter coffee, corn flakes, orange juice and some Yoghurt, though we bought that last night.
The Slovacks whom we met last night, and I omitted to mention them in Day 11, came in for breakfast after us and the air was soon redolent with frying bacon and pork sausage smell.
We left The Jamaican Inn with that smell lingering with us.
No frost this morning, however the condensation in the car blinds me until we get some warmth from the car. This VW has no A/C so the demisting is archaically slow.
We leave Sixmilebridge behind on our way to Ennis and the Cliffs of Moher, a suggestion I might add from the leading hand of the Slovak builder, previously mentioned. He was the only one who spoke English and told us we should see them as they will be one of the New Seven Wonders of the World soon.
They are on the west coast of Ireland and not that far away, about 40 km. In Oz that would be 40 minutes or less. In Ireland that is over an hour.
It’s quite remarkable that they have these narrow back lanes, barely wide enough for two vehicles, posted at 100kph. I defy any rational person do drive at that speed if the road was clear both ways. In Ireland there will be truck, cars tractors, walkers (who don’t get off the road) and the odd leprechaun or two.
Back to the Cliff of Moher pronounced “more”.
The visitor’s centre is set into the hill like the Hobbit village, very much underground. All the paths lead up, and they ascent to the viewing points over the cliffs. And what a view, they are so high you can see all the way to the New World. Well not quite but they are two hundred metres high and quite stunning the with the various layers of rock very obvious. The cliffs make nesting sites for Puffins, however we saw none today. I think the climb to the top made us quite Puffined out!
One point is topped by a tower, O’Brien’s Tower which was built by, you guessed it O’Brien, for tourism back in the 1850’s.
Far over the other side of the cliffs is another tower, from the Napoleonic Wars era, some sort of signal tower.
By the time we get back the place is overrun by German tourists, who I think may be getting as loud as the Americans.
It’s time to head for Dublin, however Billy has other ideas and decides to take is into Co Galway , so we head NE prior to turning east towards Dublin.
He took us via the usual back roads, through many villages, past a number of castles and various ruins, including an old monastery and church with graves and a leaning tower.
We saw some pretty interesting stiles in stone fences which didn’t seem to lead anywhere in particular, certainly not to a foot path etc. I took some photos of them for interest sake.
Billy took us some odd ways through villages too. At one point he turned us right off the main road, then left, then left up a very narrow street that took some 5 mins to negotiate as there were cars and trucks trying to go both ways , then hey presto a right turn back onto the first street we had turned off. Why???
By lunch time we reached a place called Moate, so mote it be, and that’s where we lunched. All the local school kids traipsed past, boys and girls, carrying golf clubs. It isn’t Wednesday.
We hit the motor way for our final push to Dublin. We tell Billy to avoid the Tollways so here we are cruising and he suddenly instructs us to take an exit, right into a tollbooth.
There is a grey haired lady there out of her car, flapping her arms. I put 1.90 Euro and the arm didn’t rise what do I do? I got out of the car to see what the instruction were however by the time I get there the toll booth was talking to her. Seems she had paid for a motor bike not a car. After some faffing around we got to pay the toll, thanks for nothing Billy.
He then proceeded to lead us back onto the same bloody road he had just got us off. What a birk!
The run into Dublin then is pretty straight forward, left turn right turn, take the next left and finally we are at the YHA.
I have booked a 4 bed room, by mistake, as it had the only ensuite facilities. Seems I have booked for 4 people too. No matter, a double room is more expensive, has no ensuite and less room.
Luckily they have a place for the car, as it will get little use tomorrow, and we settle in.
A short walk, takes us past the Irish Writers Museum, near the James Joyce Centre, yet the area has a rather run down look to it. Ladies with very tight jeans, smoking and leaning on street corners, with too much make-up at 3 in the afternoon.
The local shop’s ATM refuses to part with money using my Visa suggesting I am mean and should withdraw more than I want. Why give options of 20, 40 then 90 Euro. It obviously didn’t like much suggestion of 40 and I am damned if I want to take 90.
We will deal with it tomorrow.
The YHA has free Wi-Fi so I check my emails and do some pretty drastic deleting.
I had 190 now I’m down to 47 that I want to keep for posterity.
We see no news from Oz at all. Are you still there?