Kylemore Abbey and Clifden

So on Saturday we got back on the bus for the first time since our Dublin trip, and jetted off to Kylemore Abbey and Castle! It's a relatively new place, started in 1862 by Mitchell Henry. It only changed hands a few times before the Belgian nuns from Ypres bought the estate and turned it into an Abbey -- the total estate was about 10,000 acres when they bought it in 1914. I don't know what more modern stats are, but they've kept the place in superb condition since then (can you tell I did the presentation for this part of the trip?)

The view across the lake from Kylemore -- you can barely see the castle, close to the middle and right of the opposite shore... *squints*

Look! It's Kyle! Standing in front of KYLEmore! It's funny!

A map of the very extensive estate. I'm still slightly disappointed we didn't get to visit the 6 acres of Victorian Walled Gardens, but we only had a half hour here and had to keep moving to make this a day trip and not an overnighter...

Found in the Kylemore Abbey gift shop. I wanted to buy some SO BADLY, but restrained myself. Sometimes it's really tiresome being mature and responsible with money...

Instead of seeing the walled gardens, we got to see flower boxes everywhere :)

THE CASTLE. Sadly I think the sun was behind some clouds while we were here, but I'm told it's absolutely stunning here with the sun out. As it was, the place was really picturesque. The nuns that run the Castle/Abbey currently are mostly Romanian, and the expensive tour only lets you see a few rooms, so we skipped the tour in favor of wandering

This is as far as we could get without a tour ticket -- I think that hill in the background is one half of the Kylemore Pass.

The castle from afar

The lake and both sides of Kylemore Pass

 After our whirlwind tour of the Kylemore estate, we headed over to Clifden, a cute tiny town right on the shore of the Atlantic. 

The longest fjord in Europe -- 5 miles long! You can't even see the end of it here, because it switches back and forth so many times...

Bailey and Eric on the bus :)

We drove through Clifden and went up along the Sky Road -- I swear we were going to fall off it at times! Here, the coast is actually the Atlantic, not on a bay.

Shiny ocean is shiny! The sun decided to come out again

This was probably the best photo stop of the day -- it certainly got everyone off the bus to see the Atlantic again

This lucky house was right behind us -- I can't even imagine waking up every morning to that kind of a view!!!

The Atlantic Ocean :)

The group and the bus

Kyle, Katie Kero, and Fia :D

I swear this cow was actually staring me down... glad we were on a moving bus :P

Castle ruins

The gate to the same castle ruins

Yet more fun Irish doors -- this one HOT PINK

For lunch, a very buttery and very good BLT

Our lunch restaurant! Very good food and service

Owen took us to his favorite beach after lunch

We were able to find a bunch of really cool shells, since it was just low tide

The beach itself was sand and something grittier than sand -- after staring at it for a while, we figured out that it's tons of shell fragments!

More beach-combing

Katie Murphy trying on my sunglasses...

... and Taylor showing her how to correctly wear them...

Cool island en route to home

Just after that island picture was taken, it started sheeting rain. Trying to take pictures through the bus window became an art of abstraction...

However, the rain did stop long enough to take a few pictures of the washed-out sunset!

Until, of course, it started to hail on us. Typical Irish weather...

After the random hail, it stayed nice the rest of the way home :)

 That was Saturday! The rest of this week will be fairly quiet, with the main focus on getting ready for the St. Patrick's Day parade... and my family arriving on Saturday coming up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will be bringing my laptop with me to chronicle those adventures day-by-day... Until then :)

-S