Day Six

I title this one a long, crazy, expensive, but wonderful day in Ireland!

To start with, I love Ireland and one day will NEVER be enough time for even a piece of Ireland!

We woke up to the blaring of our alarms at 4:00 am! On the tube at 5:30, next the Stansted Express train to arrive at the Stansted Airport to board the 8:00 flight to Shannon Ireland! (Thanks Mia for holding my hand and for so patient in babysitting me through the complicated arrange to make sure that we were where we needed to be when we needed to be there... we couldn't dine it without her!)

Next to the car rental desk and then ready or not... right side of the road or wrong side of the road... we buckle the seat belts of our mini Nissan Micra and equipped with GPS (THANK HEAVENS or we still might be there... on some little road, someway!) we hit the road!

What a fun time we had! Carl did a great job driving on the other side of the road (with only two little errors, not counting the our expensive 40 euro, equals about $65, parking ticket that we got in Ennis). We were able to see a lot of amazing countryside, unbelievable views of the Atlantic Ocean, quaint villages, fascinating castles, abbeys, friaries and ruins, including the breathtaking Cliffs of Moher, St Mary's Abbey, The Burren, Quinn, Doolin & Ennis! The day just went too fast and there was so much to see and do!

So at 8:30 pm as we sat on the plane flying back to London that we were more than a bit discouraged and disappointed that we had missed so much that we had dreamed of do, including visiting more villages just to be able to stroll around exploring the shops, spending time relaxing in the pubs and visiting with the locals. Everyone that we meant were so congenial and helpful and we would have loved to experience more of the culture. But, with all that said and done, some was definitely better that nothing!!

So, the finish the adventure after the plane, the train and the tube back we we back home at about 11:30 pm!

PS... Carl insists that I not leave out the part about my near miss pedestrian vs London Cab encounter. Needless to say, when in London don't forget to look LEFT! Boy, that was a close one!!! It took a little while for the heart rate to return to normal!