Galway, the Burren, and the Cliffs of Moher

After a few days in Dublin, I swapped the east coast for the west coast, with Galway City as my homebase. As an introduction to Ireland, it was great to see the capital and the country.

Galway has lots of idyllic postcard sights...

I love aquariums - a lot. I've probably been to them in at least six countries. So the National Aquarium in Galway was a must, where I made a new friend:

Squee!

We decided to jam as much sightseeting into one day as possible and took a - gasp - bus tour! Something I rarely do, but worth access to such views:

We took a very adventurous rainy trip through the Burren ending at the Cliffs of Moher, where the gale force winds made being outside a bit impossible...

The west country is worthy of a trip. It is hard to imagine people have been living there for thousands of years, perched on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean building a life on rocks and wind.