As you wish….

Does this place look familiar? It’s the Cliff’s of Insanity if you are a Princess Bride fan. If you are a Harry Potter fan , this is a familiar scene from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. If you find yourself driving along the Wild Atlantic Way (WAW), you will want to stop here. It one of Ireland’s most famous attractions, the Cliffs of Moher.

There are a couple of ways to get there. You can take the coastal hiking trail from Doolin up to the Cliff’s of Moher Visitor’s Center, which is about a 2.5 mile hike. Or you can drive on the narrow roads that take you through quaint Irish villages and then hike on the actual cliffs once inside the park. Either way, you are in for a spectacular sight.

We chose to drive to the Visitor’s Center which took us through the beautiful countryside and allowed us stumbled upon this gem. The Clare Jam Company. Seemingly in the middle of nowhere with a view of the Aran Islands (check out the view below)sits this family owned and run Jam shop. Check out their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pg/The-Clare-Jam-Company-638087912938304/posts/?ref=page_internal you will see they are known all over the world for their delicious jam. For Rob, this was the highlight of our past few days in Ireland. We now have 5 jars of jam to travel home with.

After spending a few hours at the Cliffs we jumped back on the WAW and headed along the sea to explore some of the quaint seaside towns. The first one we came upon was Lahinch, County Clare. This surfing town was still in it’s winter slumber with a few exceptions that were open for shopping and dining. After a brief stop in Kenny’s Woollen Mills https://www.kennywoollenmills.com where we picked up some beautiful Aran wool gift items, we were in search of food. We found a cute little cafe, overlooking the water called Joe’s Cafe. I was craving pizza and Diet Coke and they had both. We were the only tourist in the place. Locals gathered to catch up on the local news, discuss the big storm coming in and to spend time with friends. There were a group of surfers that were talking about their plans to go surfing tomorrow- yes, surfing in Ireland, in February…crazy. It’s a place I would go back to as it reminded me of some of the surfing villages in Souther California along the PCH. High on a cliff, the village of Lahinch has spectacular views and was the ideal location to watch the sun set.

Tomorrow we are heading further north to spend the day in Galway. Galway was recently honored of being named the 2020 European Capital of Culture so we are looking forward to exploring this famous town. For now though, we are heading into Ennis to find a pub for a bit of dinner and music.