A good part of the bus ride with The Galway Tour Company to the cliffs was through the Burren. The newly emerged sun against the persistent rain clouds only made the ride more incredible. There’s something very lonely and yet magical about the countryside in the Burren and County Clare. It’s easy to see why some believe that the Burren might have been a source of inspiration for Tolkien.

The final pre-launch stop was the Kilfenora Cathedral and the High Crosses.

On the tour we were fortunate enough to meet Mia from California. In Galway for a business trip, she hung out with us during the tour and joined us for dinner later. She was pretty awesome and we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her.

We arrived at the Cliffs of Moher at the perfect moment. It was as if we were in a movie…the clouds broke apart and the sun burst through.

The cliffs illuminated in the late afternoon sun were amazing…of course I’m sure they’re amazing in any light. And there was so much to see such as the Branaunmore or An Branán Mór, a sea stack beneath O’Brien’s Tower.

The closer we got to O’Brien’s tower, the more intense the wind became.

From the cliffs we could watch the rain bands moving over the Aran Islands at the mouth of Galway Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

And this was the side that we were technically not supposed to trespass on…notice the lack of the stone wall separating us and other visitors from a ridiculously high drop.