Ireland Trip- Bunratty, Cliffs of Moher

We started our last day with a quick trip to Bunratty Castle. This one is cool because it isn't a ruin- they have preserved and restored it, and it has actual furnishings in it as well:

The view from the turrets was pretty:

They even have steps to go up further:

The stairs were pretty narrow and steep:

The Great Hall:

They had a lot of older houses outside of Bunratty Castle, and it was fun to walk around them. It kind of reminded me of our pioneer villages. They also had some huge wolfhounds:

After we left Bunratty, we headed towards the Cliffs of Moher. It was crazy windy at some parts of that, so windy that they brought their volunteers and workers inside the visitors center but didn't warn us tourists of anything, lol. I was legitimately worried for a second that Ivy might get blown away and she was too, and so she clung on tight to the walls sometimes:

The views on both sides of the entrance were so beautifulL

There was a castle up there that they apparently used in one of the Harry Potter films:

It was also a bit crazy to me that here, on the Cliffs of Moher, there were still grazing fields with sheep on them:

Then we started our drive back to Dublin for our flight home the next day. It was another pretty drive through sheep grazing territory, with a random castle every so often. We ended up stopping for dinner at another Irish pub (we ate SO MUCH POTATO this trip), which had some interesting urinals in their men's bathroom:

We also decided to stop when we saw a sign for this place, Kilmacduagh. Just as we got there an older man was leaving the site, and he was gracious enough to tell us about it for a minute. Apparently this is the site of the very first Christian cathedral in Ireland. It did have a graveyard, some ruins, and some cool looking Christian buildings:

We also took a quick stop at Coole Forest, because it seemed so cool, and also so we could go to the bathroom. It was a cute little forest with some old buildings. Apparently the grounds used to belong to someone who was a great patron of the arts in olden times. It was a cool little stop:

Then on the way back to Dublin, we were again hampered by the gas protest (there were also many gas stations out of gas entirely because of the blockades and protests, but we were always able to find what we needed). Some big trucks ride in front of us so everyone had to drive really slowly for like an hour. Not my favorite.

Then we stayed the night in Dublin, and went to the airport the next morning! The airport had some other crazy Pringles flavors for us, and they were actually pretty gross, even though the kids love cheeseburgers:

We were all tired on the flight home, but we had such a great trip it was worth it: