The final day of the tour began with me meeting a lady from InishMaan, the "middle" island of ther Aran Islands group, whom I knew from thirty five years ago. What a coincidence, she was sitting at the next breakfast table and we exchanged numbers and email. It is nice to renew an old aquaintance and have a connection with the island. I would very much like to visit there again. There are only 147 people on the island and it has not changed for decades, unlike the other two islands.
We drove through Oranmore, "The Galway Shawl" township, on our way down to Co. Clare. We stopped at the famous "Burren", an almost lunar landscape of volcanic limestone. There are flowers and other plants here that do not grow anywhere else in Europe. We travelled on to the Cliffs of Moher, eight hundred feet above sea level. It's Ireland's number 2 spot behind Guiness's Brewry and there were plenty of people to prove it. It was once again, a glorious day. I'm just amazed at the weather we've had. Our final leg took us on down past Lahinch golf links, one of Ireland's most famous courses. I was quite jealous as I watched the golfers having a go in such fine weather. Our driver John snook us into Dromoland Castle, a site for every Yank's sore eyes. Truly a splendid example of a medieval castle, turned hotel on beautiful grounds. We actually saw a wedding group arrive with bagpiper leading the couple who arrived in a vintage car. Everyone was "dressed to the nines", looking more like a day at the races....

We had our final dinner together in our lovely hotel tonight, to me, our finest meal so far. We hugged and said goodbye 'til the next tour in the Fall of 2011, which will cover the lower half of Ireland.

Thanks for staying with the blog. For me, another week and a half in Dublin and London. I'll be back to business as usual on the eighth of April....'til then..."Slan agaibh go leir".....