Ireland Day 2: Oh the Cliffs!

The Cliffs of Moher lived up to the hype, and then some. Truly stunning. We walked the 5-mile cliff path from the Visitor’s Center to Doolin. There are actually two paths: one safe and one not so much. Betsy, of course, chose the thrilling path.

This is every bit as scary as it looks. See that fence on the right? There’s a safe path on the other side.

From Kim: I had a nightmare about this after it was over. That’s a hole in the path.

We are here at exactly the right time for the flowers. They are blooming everywhere.

That walk deserved a drink as a reward. We stopped at a pub in Doolin and had lunch.

This guy drove us back to our car. He laughed when we said we stop in the road every time a bus passes. In fact, he pretty much laughed about U.S. drivers on Ireland roads.

Speaking of driving…it’s scary, but it’s been going okay. As much as we hate seeing buses coming at us, turns out that following one is a gift. Cars get out of their way. We were sandwiched between two and that was the safest we’ve felt.

We loved our stay at Gregans Inn. A beautiful property. Above is the view from our window.

But the dinner, that was something truly special.

There’s a lot of bread and Irish butter here. That one at the top left is called chicken butter…it has crispy chicken skin mixed in. Because eating butter isn’t bad enough. Most of the stuff below we didn’t order. They just bring it.

Those lollipop things are apple sorbet on the outside and caramel sorbet on the inside.

Broccoli tartlets…kind of little phyllo shells with a broccoli puree and some toasted nuts.

These mushroom bites were about the size of a quarter. The “mushroom” caps are actually meringue and in between they had some crispy bacon and a melted cheese.

Fish and radish salad

Duck egg with all kinds of good stuff.

Halibut, cauliflower puree and greens

I’m calling this ham soup, but it was better than that. Ham broth, greens and a ravioli.

Lamb…but they put something on the plate they didn’t mention. That stuff in the middle includes sweetbreads. It stayed on the plate.

Best dessert ever. It’s a lemon meringue tart with cucumber and ginger. Those little green things on the tart are candied cucumber balls…who knew that could be so delicious. That’s a cumcumber sorbet off to the side.

Petit fours

Aside from the food, we enjoyed the animals at Gregans. A stray dog had wandered a few days before we arrived and he’s made himself at home. He gets lots of love and plenty of food. They have a house cat who visited our room and also some cows in the pasture. The cows loved the dog.