People speak Gaelic in many of the villages, and there are abandoned villages for sale. There are *many* sheep and cows, and they climb up to some unbelievable heights. We climbed the 6 of the 12 pins in the Connemara Nat Park (it was harder that the Half Dome!), and even at the parts with scree, and the parts where we had to climb on all four, we found trace of sheep - Irish sheep go boldly where no normal sheep would go. Other typical features of Connemara are its beautiful ponies and the amazingly friendly people.
Also the badly marked roads, but getting lost on the remote roads was the part of the experience. The place is beautiful you *want* to get lost. And to be found much later, a few days perhaps, in some lively pub with a pint of yummy Guiness in your hands...
The weather changes all the time, many times per day - but we still managed to get sunburned. The beaches are better than on Caribbean tourist brochures; the sand is white, the water the cleanest and clearest in Europe (here and on some island group in Greece), and one can swim with seals!
The Cliffs of Moher, in the neighbouring region of Burren, are about 200 meters high, and have the most amazing sunsets. The quality of light in this part of the world is unique (partly due to the weather), and we held our breath as we watched the red sun, blue sea, green cliff tops and Brian's tower. We had a rainbow behind our backs all the time...
It is a pity we don't do sound as well - there are thousands of birds nesting in cliffs, and the noise they make adds substantially to the surreal atmosphere of the place. Among others, there are guillemots, kittiwakes, fulmars, shags and puffins.
The fishing is excellent - we went sea angling in a small boat, and got so much fish (I'm not boasting :) that my father would not have believed it. But he would have loved being there. Lots of cod, ling, pollack, and mackerel. It was even better than fishing in Norway, and that says a lot! The more able and patent can also get blue sharks, conger eels and common skates. Along the shore the boats often see dolphins and grey or common seals, and sometimes even whales.
And Christie and Mike-B seemed to enjoy the fishing, in spite of very heavy showers of sea water and the wind!
We had too much fish and John cooked a tiny bit of it for breakfast. And even though his culinary skills were impressive, the still didn't quite match the dinners we had the other nights - oysters, champagne, and the best fish meals I have ever tasted. And lobsters!
Finally, a couple of castle photographs to round of the touristy part of our trip: some old (Dunguaire Castle, 16th century)...
and some less old (Kylemore abbey, 19th century)
And finally the participants (Mike-B, Christie, Nickie, John, Mike-I, Silvija, Andreas, and we are missing Paul)
and the authors:
