Trying to figure a plan!

Well, it looks like we're definitely going to have a visitor in August. We haven't booked it yet, but we think we've devised a plan to have grandson Cameron (12) come and tour some of Europe with his grandma and grandpa.

Most of the logistical problems relate to the fact that they live near Halifax, Nova Scotia and there aren't many direct flights from Halifax to anywhere across the pond. He can only fly direct to either London, or Frankfurt.

I think we must be approaching a record number of beautiful, free overnight spots!

Regular readers know that we don't use campgrounds very often, especially when they are as expensive as they are here in Ireland. Max is self sufficient, and we don't have the need for all the services a campground offers. 

Plus, Ireland offers so many gorgeous free overnight possibilities!

There are three defibrillators along the route...

Not much in the way of sunshine yesterday, but we still got out for another big uphill climb without getting too wet!

When we had climbed Diamond Hill the day before, we had been talking to a local lady who said we should also climb Clough Patrick... Ireland's Holy Mountain. Nora, whose driveway we stayed in had also mentioned this hike to us so we thought we had better include it too providing the weather was good.

We had a busy day, with photos to prove it...

Lots of photos!

Our first stop was the town of Clifden, but the parking situation on a Sunday morning wasn't the best for motorhomes. We ended up doing a little grocery shopping at the local Lidl, and moving on to Clifden Castle and not really seeing the town at all. 

But, we would rather spend our time walking around the countryside than walking around a town anyhow.

On our way to Clifden, but we never made it

Clifden is supposed to be a picturesque little tourist town surrounded by breathtaking scenery. Sounds great, so we were on our way there but we got sidetracked... by the breathtaking scenery along the way!

Partly our fault though because we didn't get on the road until around 11:00am.

Friday evening out at the pub

It kind of drizzled on and off all day, and we didn't leave the motorhome until about 8:00pm in the evening!

But, we were due for a relaxing day of doing nothing... and there's nothing wrong with that every now and again. I got caught up on some internet stuff, and got our ferry to Wales booked.

A beautiful day in Galway, and now doing some driveway camping!

It was a gorgeous sunny day yesterday here in western Ireland! 

Wednesday night, we had been parked a few miles east of the city of Galway. I found us a good free parking spot just north of the city, but it would mean a 3.5 km walk just to get to the central area. But with hardly a cloud in the sky, we decided that was our best option.

Travel planning and the weather

As full time travelers, we do a lot of our planning around the weather. The ideal for us is to have shorts and t-shirt type of weather with daily high temperatures between 18C and 25C (64F to 77F).

The problem for us is that we also want to visit countries that are outside of those parameters! So we sometimes have to bite the bullet and put up with temperatures or weather conditions that are less than ideal.

Cliffs of Moher, part 2

Up and on the road early again, and we drove right away into the touristy town of Doolin. Every second building is a bed and breakfast or hotel or guesthouse. 

Doolin is the starting point if you want to walk to the Cliffs of Moher from the north heading south. It's also where the ferries set off from if you want to visit the Aran Islands.

The Cliffs of Moher. Worth a visit, however...

There's a beautiful walking trail at the Cliffs of Moher, but the challenge is finding free parking at what has become a very popular and touristy natural attraction.

But we are resourceful, and we don't mind walking!

From one graveyard to the next

Sunday morning, we hung around the graveyard for a while. It was such a nice peaceful spot. A local farmer walked by with his dog and was tending to a herd of cows across the road. Ruth went out and spoke to him, and he apologized if his cows bothered us in the night!

Really nice guy, and we had a good chat with him. Everybody we meet here in Ireland is so cheerful.

We met Max two years ago today!

We were reminded this morning that today is our second anniversary with Max. He has been a great travel companion, so I thought we should show some of our highlights with Max over the past two years.

We picked him up in Dulmen, Germany on June 18, 2021 right in the middle of the Covid pandemic. 

Boy, did we ever get dumped on!

Well, we managed to do 90 kms (54 miles) worth of driving yesterday, but it still feels like we didn't get very far. 

We started off heading to the beach town of Ballybunion where there are some colorful cliffs and sea caves that we wanted to see. We didn't check the tide schedule beforehand, and simply got lucky... the tide was all the way out!

I figured I had better go get this looked at

Long time readers will remember when we had our eye surgery in Turkiye. Time flies, because believe it or not that was two and a half years ago!

And for that period, we have been totally happy with our eyes. Well, until a few weeks ago I noticed that one eye was a bit funny. 

Gorgeous scenery

We figured we had better get a move on if we're going to make it around Ireland and back to Dublin by the middle of next month. We've already decided that our onward travels on this particular trip won't include Scotland. It would just be too rushed for us.

Instead, we're going to make our way back to Dublin by mid July and take the ferry from there to Holyhead, Wales.