ireland - day 4

Today was another trying day. We had a "map" that showed some ruins and high crosses all within a two-hour drive of each other. Well, we were not very good at figuring out the map or finding what we wanted to find. After going to where we thought were the high crosses, we just stopped at a church and walked through the cemetery. Then, we changed our minds and headed south to find a round tower. We had to stop for directions on this one but finally found it and the view was amazing. The tower was pretty small but still fun to walk around. Then, we found a petrol station, filled up the car and headed south again for a two-hour drive to our next B&B outside of Galway. We actually got sick of the car and stopped to walk on the beach for a bit. Dinner at the local pub (had some fabulous fish and chips) and then back to plan the next day. The great thing about today was that Wells and Kaitlyn finally figured out how to be amazing navigators! The rest of the trip was pretty smooth once they figured that out. I was wishing that had figured it out at the beginning of the day so we didn't drive so aimlessly but that is ok. It helped tremendously the rest of the trip.

 At the random cemetery at which we stopped. Not what we were looking for but very impressive nonetheless.

View from Grianan Ailigh (the roundtower). It was very overcast, windy, and chilly but a beautiful view. You could literally walk around the top of the tower and enjoy this type of view from every angle.

 More of the spectacular view.

 Inside the tower. There were three main levels with stairs to climb up. Some stairs took you up two levels, some only one.

 More stairs.

 Me walking along the top enjoying the view.

A pretty good view of the inside. This tower was not very big when compared to other things we saw.

Do I look epic enough?

We found a hole down here, do you think the walls are hollow? I want to go inside.

 A picture of the hole. There was a grate over it.

 One of the many random villages we drove through.

 When we stopped on the beach, there was this random green strip. A stream of some kind was trickling down from the grounds above. It must have been warm or something to create this moss.

 Striking.

Look! Fossils!

Random shells.

 More fossils

So, this pic is upside down for some random reason. These bushes were in bloom all over Ireland. Sometimes they were by buildings, mostly they were part of the fences.