we started with breakfast in the castle dining room. in addition to the continental buffet, i had the traditional irish breakfast and patrick had ? i must pause here and breathe. the food and service we experienced at the dromoland breakfast was BY FAR the best i've had. from the coffee and tea service to the amazing food - i just can't say enough. the fruits and pastries set out on buffet were INCREDIBLE. the freshest berries and melons and a wide selection of danish, muffins, and filled pastries. everything was stellar. and i discovered that i love black pudding! go figure.
after a scrumptious meal, we headed north stopping at bunratty castle and folk park. the castle is one of the smaller ones we visited but i enjoyed looking around. the site reminded me of colonial williamsburg in that it's set up as a small village where you can go around and visit different homes and businesses the way they would have looked a couple hundred years ago. there are a few people in character working different shops and lots of cute animals roaming the grounds. we were nearly attacked by a roaming band of killer baby chicks. luckily we could out step them! ;-)
after visiting the folk park and doing a little more shopping -- this is where i managed to find my waterford pig! -- we continued on to the cliffs of moher. these cliffs are the quintessential irish visitors' destination. they soar hundreds of feet into the air rising magnificently out of the ocean. patrick was brave and wandered past the "do not pass this point" sign to get some better views and pictures. my sense of self-preservation did not allow me to go with him, ha. but we did wander the area getting some amazing views of the cliffs and the ocean. it really is breathtaking.
once we had finished visiting the cliffs, patrick decided that he really wanted to get an aran sweater like we had seen a few days before in some shop. soooo off we went to find a sweater! we ended up heading north into galway for the evening. we hit a few shops in town (success on the sweater shopping) and enjoyed walking around in the very pedestrian-friendly downtown. as somewhere we had not planned on seeing, i'm glad we got the chance to see just a bit of galway, and i'd love to go back and see more. while in the city, we decided to have dinner at buster brown's which is highly recommended in several guidebooks. we were not disappointed. having our final pints with some pub grub in a luscious atmosphere was just how i wanted to spend our last irish dinner.
after dinner it was back to dromoland to pack and sort out our tax info for the VAT refund. btw the whole VAT refund is probably more trouble than it's worth, but we still went through it. apparently we had purchases that fit all 3 different ways of getting a VAT refund, so it took awhile to get everything sorted out. two of the refund policies grant immediate refunds from the airport. the third involved a snail-mail refund which we have still not seen. but alas. i pilfered what toiletries i could from the castle and we packed everything up for our early morning departure the following day.
DAY 9
we were up early for breakfast before our flight. we and two or three other couples were in the castle dining room as it opened so that we would make our flight. we opted to just have items from the buffet and again, we were not disappointed. after breakfast and checking out, we headed into the trusty fiat for the last time and continued on to shannon airport, only about 20 minutes away. we turned in the car (get the extra insurance!) and checked in for the flight. shannon airport is easily navigable. we did a little last minute shopping and sadly, waited for our flight. our flights back home were uneventful, thank goodness. and we arrived home safe and sound (but pretty gosh darn tired) around 10 p.m. that night.
we truly had the most amazing trip and i can't wait to go back. ireland is an amazing adventure and you can't go wrong visiting this incredible country with some of the friendliest people you will ever meet. i highly recommend making the trip if you have the opportunity. and i would be happy to answer any questions regarding our trip if you have them!
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