After a delightful day of travel from Edinburgh to Dublin (via trains and a bus), we checked into the Conrad Hotel Saturday evening, March 13th, where we had a great night of sleep...and enjoyed six of the largest bed pillows (each just *shy* of being a body pillow! ha) we've ever had!

We had arranged ahead of time for a rental car in Dublin. We knew that we wanted to make at least one "day trip" while there, so Sunday March 14th, the four of us took a taxi from the hotel to the rental facility where we were surprised with a Jaguar Hatchback (automatic transmission, btw) waiting for us. Phil usually gets vehicle upgrades because of the large number of car rentals he has yearly with Hertz (due to his travels with IBM), but never to a Jaguar....and we didn't even *know* that Jaguars made hatchbacks! :-) I don't even need to tell you that Phil *really* enjoyed the day! ha

Dennis took the above photo (from the back seat) of Phil's hands on the steering wheel of the car while Phil drove on an expressway from Dublin (east coast port city) across Ireland to Galway (west coast). Once we arrived in Galway and began our drive southward (headed to the Cliffs of Moher), we didn't have much to say other than exclamations such as, "Oh, my goodness!" "Oh, how beautiful!" We soon found that words were insufficient, so our utterances dwindled to, "Oh, ooh, ooooh, ah, "and such as we stared out windows, and I often yelled "Stop!" to Phil so that Dennis & I could get the *perfect* pictures. (Phil's used to that, by the way! ha)

I won't bother you with verbiage about most of the photos. Suffice it to say that both Dennis and I sat in the car, poised with cameras in hand, ready to capture the sights (such as the castle-type structure...and we actually got out of the car and walked back a distance to get pictures of this place) and abundantly beautiful & memorable scenery of western Ireland.

While paused at a red light....moss on stones.....

Colorful buildings behind ancient stone fence....