Europe 2007: Day 3 (Galway rail tour)

We woke up around 5:30am and took a cab to Heuston station where we met Vincent, our tour guide with Railtours Ireland for the day. We had booked an all-day tour to Cobh, Cork and Blarney Castle but it was cancelled since nobody else had booked. Instead we were rescheduled for a tour to Galway, Aillwee Cave, Doolin and the Cliffs of Moher.

The train portion of the trip was around 3 hours each way. Other than fields of sheep (including a lot of little lambs), there wasn't much to see. The Irish countryside is beautiful though, and very relaxing. Once in Galway we joined another tour group and went by bus to Doolin for lunch at Gus O'Connor's Pub. From there we went to the Cliffs of Moher but a heavy fog had set in and we couldn't see anything. We joked that we went to the Cliffs of Moher but we didn't actually SEE the Cliffs of Moher. It was probably the biggest disappointment of our entire trip.

After leaving the cliffs, we drove to the Aillwee Cave. It was cool but not really that different from any other caves we've seen. In all, it ended up being our worst day. By the time we reached Dublin again around 9pm, I had such a miserable migraine that I wasn't able to sleep.

The high point of the tour was definitely our guide. Vincent was such a wealth of information for us when it came to things to do or avoid in Dublin. He also gave us some really valuable insights into what it would be like to live in the area.

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