nic at night

the first major sight-seeing event in ireland that we have recorded on the digital camera (because the gazillion rolls of film aren't developed yet) is our trip to the cliffs of moher. the day we went it was windier than the really windy days from my ride training. it was also really misty (it was early in the day, and the climate on the west coast there seemed much like the san francisco area -- foggy in the morning, burning off clear midday on sunny days), so we couldn't see as far along the coast as clear days (compare to this guy's photos on a sunny afternoon).

it was so windy, that we got a little hysterical as we were walking around (coming off the hysteria we'd had the day before careening through the mountains). on a less windy day I would have been more than tempted to hop the guard fence and get photos of us on the edge of the cliffs, but I was having to work to stay upright to walk along the path so I ruled out the precarious options early. we climbed the tower there (built about 30 years ago for visitors; whether as a wind shelter or for the views, it's hard to say).



from this photo, you can tell how misty it is (that hump in the background over d.'s shoulder is the coastline). you can also tell the difficulties we were having in taking photos, as our hair was blowing in our faces. however, we're actually blocked from the wind here by the telescope stand on the top of the tower.





this is more what it was like the rest of the time, complete with european tourists looking at us like we were lunatics.

the cliffs themselves were amazing. even with the wind I could have stayed there for hours just watching the waves and the seabirds. the scale was daunting, too -- without a person as a reference point, it's easy to miss how tall they really are. which kind of puts lemmings into perspective or might make us answer differently the "if everyone else were jumping off a cliff..." query.