their hat, while climbing up to the viewing platform, or they would have blown away. In fact, mothers were holding their children's hands very tightly, youngsters were hanging on to each other, and so were little old ladies, for fear, they too would blow away. Oh, yes, there was also that misty rain while we were there.
The Cliffs are the result of an earth shaking event that occured 300 million yeasrs ago, when they raised up 700 feet from out of the sea. "Awesome and dramatic" doesn't begin to describe them. I stood there, trying to imagine myself alone, before that place became a tourist attraction; just me and the cliffs and the ocean waves, crashing onto the rocks below, the wind whipping at my hair and the misty rain stinging my face; just me, alone in this spot, just me, my angels and God.
Traveling North to Black Head, we looked back to see in the distance the Islands
of Aran, where the Irish Knit Sweaters originated. These sweaters were a fisherman's identity. In the early years, many ships would be lost in the Atlantic storms and when the bodies would be found, washed up on the shore, weeks later, the only means of identication was by the sweater the man was wearing. Therefore, no two sweaters were alike.
We stopped along the way, taking pictures of Galway Bay. Also stopped to take pictures of Dunguaire Castle, where they now give readings of the works of Yeats, Singe and Shaw. "What about my favorite, Thomas Moore?", I wanted to know, but I was in the back of the bus, I think and my question was never heard.
Before arriving in Galiway, we stopped for a lecture on glasscutting at the
Galway Crystal Heritage Center and, another one on china at the Royal Tara China Factory.
Inevitably, when one travels, one expects to run into things one never expected to see. But, one thing I never expected to see in Ireland were palm trees. They just seemed so out of place in
Galway, but, there they were. Of course, they were imported and only to be found in people's front yards or outside a hotel. Never in the wild. It seems that, because of the Gulf Stream, the climate permits them to succeed, once they have been imported.