Rocks and Castles

Day 12 (May 1, 2011)

Itinerary: Drop off the Covington family at the Shannon airport, pick up a smaller rental car, drive towards the Rock of Cashel with several stops along the way

Amazingly this morning started off sunny again. All this gorgeous, sunny weather is out of character for this time of year. The Irish all exclaim about the weather when we talk to them. Our Bed and Breakfast host couldn't get over all this weather. I like to think we brought it.

We had a traditional Irish breakfast, called a fry this morning including eggs, bacon (more like fried ham), tomatoes, potatoes, and of course a variety of bread. I probably ate too much, but we plan on eating a lighter lunch because of it. Since we were occupying all 3 rooms at the B&B, we felt as if we had the place to ourselves and we all ate together just as we would at home.

At 9:30am it was time to say goodbye to Alan and take him to the airport. He'll head back home to Pittsburgh with a layover in JFK. We wish him good travels. Then at 10:30am it was time to say goodbye to Mark's parents and wish them farewell as they travel back to Dallas, through London. Though it was sad to say goodbye to family, I was looking forward to trading in our rental car for something a)smaller and b)one that drives better. After some confusion, we finally found our new rental car, a Nissan Micra, and turned in our Opel Zafira. The Micra is indeed tiny, but perfect for 2 people. It drives so much better as well. I'm very happy to let my foot off the brake or gas pedal and not worry about rolling down hill.

Now what? We hadn't really planned out where to stop along the way to the Rock of Cashel, so Mark and I sat in the rental car lot and flipped through the guidebooks looking for stops along the way. We decided to take the scenic route and drive smaller roads rather than the main highway-like route. We found the Grange stone circles that were excavated rather recently in 1939. These stone circles, unlike the ring forts we've seen, consist of various sizes of flat stones placed in the ground vertically in a 46 meter diameter(interior) circle. The stones are placed in sockets and supported by a large bank on the exterior. The ring is not very tall, but is estimated to have been placed about 2000 BC! Now that's old.

Nearby was Lough Gur lake and park. Since it was 2pm, we pulled out some picnic food from the car and watched the children play and several people fish. I felt very relaxed at this point. It was windier than I'd like, but the lake was pretty, the people watching was entertaining, and the picnic food was good. I was a little reluctant to get back on the road, but Lough Gur, while nice, was not really a historic place for us to stay. Per a guidebook recommendation, we took a scenic drive towards the town of Tipperary. Honestly, all the driving has been scenic and I can't say that one area was more scenic than another. Darker clouds rolled in and created an interesting backdrop to the mountains. It almost looked like a sunset with a thin slice of brighter sky lining the tops of the dark mountains and then dark clouds on top of that. We started to see a few rain drops today, but it was to be expected. Perfect weather can't last forever.

I enjoy driving through the Irish countryside. I'm so used to driving roads like I-10 between Houston and San Antonio. I-10 is rather dull and I have all the exits and billboards memorized. But here, driving brings an interesting and new sight around each bend. The narrow, one-lane roads are lined with tall grasses and hedges that almost make me feel as if I'm hiking instead of driving. Even the two-lane roads (and by two-lane, i mean one in each direction) replace shoulders with grasses and hedges. The drives are beautiful and the landscape is greener than anything you can imagine. I don't think I've seen so much green in my life!

We stopped in Cahir (pronounced like the word, care) to see the Cahir Castle built in the 13th century, remodeled in the 15th century, and renovated in the 19th century, and of course again in the 20th. This castle combined the best of both worlds with an informative tour and time to wander and explore even the insides of the tower on our own. We were here for the last tour of the day which was pretty small. The castle is built in a perfect location on an island surrounded by a river and on a large piece of limestone. the limestone base meant that enemies could not tunnel underneath, and the river meant no moat was needed. Cahir castle had such good defensive measures that it was only taken over by force once in 1599.

I really enjoyed this castle visit because there did not seem to be a restriction on photography. I do love to spend time taking photos from various angles while a tour guide is talking. After the tour, when we could tour the tower on our own, I was able to take photos there too and have the time to set up the composition as I wanted. We watched the film that went with castle as well and felt very informed about the region.

We nearly got locked in the castle overnight as we were touring the tower while they were locking up the gates. We were clearly 10 minutes away from closing, but we got pushed out the door as it was unlocked for us. Oh well. I would definitely recommend this castle visit to anyone in the area. We had some rain off and on through our tour, but nothing that would slow us down. The film gave us some ideas of locations to take photos of the outside walls, so we went on a walking tour of the tiny town to find those locations.

The river near the castle was full of ducks chasing bugs and diving down into the crystal clear waters to find nibbles at the bottom. The water was so clear that we could see the duck's head underneath poking around in the rocks. And the ducklings were so fun to watch. They spent their time swimming in circles trying to catch the bugs flying through the air. They would almost lift themselves out of the water as they kicked super-fast to propel through the water after the bugs. We stayed very amused for quite a while watching their antics and adding our own commentary.

Cashel was only about 20 minutes away from Cahir, so we headed to our bed and breakfast located at the base of the Rock of Cashel. In fact, you really can't get any closer than Rockside Joy's B&B. The host of this 4-bedroom B&B was very welcoming and gave us lots of information on the area to start us off on the right foot. We will have to ask her again tomorrow to repeat some of the information. =) She gave us a recommendation for dinner, but the town seemed to have turned into a ghost town for the night. The Fahy's restaurant we visited was probably the least interesting restaurant we've been to this whole vacation. The food was fine, but not quite the quality we've been getting other places. However, I can't figure out where everyone else is going.

After a trip to the grocery store to get some more picnic food and ice cream dessert for tonight, we retired early to our room for a nice catching up on the internet. I'm about 3 days behind on typing up this blog/journal and we both wanted some time to catch up with Facebook and email.

When the sky became a nice dark blue after sunset, I bundled up and headed out with my camera to take night photos of the Rock of Cashel. The attraction is literally at the front door of the B&B. The walls are lit at night creating a neat looking view and very different from the day view. I found a little path that took me past a sheep farm. It was dark out with no lights and while the fence-line provided a stable place to put my tripod, the bleating sheep created a rather creepy atmosphere.

Picture it. The sky is dark. I am on a path with no lighting. Reflected light off the castle is giving me just enough light that I can make out the difference between the path and the grass. No one is out here and the silence surrounds me like a blanket. I can't even here the bugs chirping. A light rain starts to fall and I take shelter under a tree for several minutes until the shower passes. The sound of my camera shutter is the loudest sound around and can almost make me jump. Then, a low bleat startles me and I realize that the field next to me is full of sheep. Their bleats, several minutes apart startle me all night long. I can just barely make out the shape of the sheep in the grass. Meanwhile, though, I think I captured some fantastic photos. I'll have to wait until I get home to my good computer monitor to make sure, but I do have high hopes.

I found my way back to the room where Mark was waiting and here I am, typing away. Tomorrow we plan to spend the morning touring the Rock and then see how much of the day is left for other activities. Since tomorrow is the May bank holiday, places might be closed. We've had a lot of bank holidays on this trip.

Cliffs of Amazement

Day 11 (April 30, 2011)

Itinerary: depart cottage to drive to Cliffs of Moher, stay the night in Shannon

Today is a sad day because it is the last day that Mark's family will be spending with us. Tomorrow they take off back home to the States to get back to regular life. We have a lot of driving in front of us for today, so it was early to rise for all of us and out the door 30 minutes ahead of schedule at 9:30am.

A note from the future: I have become hopelessly behind in my journal entries. I'm typing this several days later and hope to remember all of our activities.

Back to today... The Cliffs of Moher are supposed to be one of the top natural attractions in Ireland, so even though it is a bit of a drive, I tacked it on to our vacation itinerary. It is about 3 hours north of our cottage on the west coast of Ireland and then about another hour away from Shannon, our final destination for the day. However, I planned to make this an all day trip with several stops along the way.

The first half of the drive was rather uneventful since we've pretty much already done all there is to do in our area of the peninsula. We were headed towards the little town of Tarbert where a ferry would shuttle us across the estuary so that we did not need to detour off our coastal drive into Limerick just to bypass the water. We arrived at the ferry about 10 minutes after one had just taken off. So, with 45 minutes to spare, we left the car in line and went exploring. This part of the estuary had a huge section that appeared to be just mud. It almost looked like a large beach, but clearly it was nearly an acre of just mud. The ocean water level was only slightly below the level of the mud, so we contemplated if the tides would cover the mud at any point. No answers of course. At one point I walked out to the end of the pier to look for the ferry and found a lighthouse around the corner. It was so windy out here on the pier that my ears began to hurt from the wind and cold. The ferry was fairly fast moving and very low to the ocean. We boarded the ferry on a ramp that just barely skimmed the top of the water. Our ride to the other side was only about 30 minutes and we used the time to read up on where we were going.

Lunch in the town of Kilrush turned out to be an experience. Firstly, we only found this place because of a self-advertised note on the side of the road saying they had good food. It turns out they had REALLY good food at Crotty's. Unfortunately, we arrived before the bread truck bringing the hamburger buns and we had to wait a little for our food. The menu was interesting. I ordered a baked potato with tuna that turned out to be excellent. Everyone else was happy with their food as well.

Back on the road, we decided to drive out towards what the guidebook termed, the "Cliffs of Amazement." These were supposed to be coastal cliffs that would rival the Cliffs of Moher, but be less touristy. On the way, we found a castle to tour. This castle, Carrigaholt Castle, was accessible by untying a rope and opening a gate into a cow yard. We couldn't scramble in this castle like the other one we found the other day as it was deemed too dangerous and the doors were gated off. But we did get lots of good views of the tower from the outside.

We had several detours on the way to the cliffs of amazement just due to lack of road signage and lack of good directions in the tour book. But, eventually we found them and they were pretty amazing. With waves crashing into the rocks below, we stood out over the cliffs and marveled at the size. We marveled until the obnoxious bugs in the area drove us back into the car. These bugs latched themselves on to us and in seconds we were all covered in black bugs. Yuck! Luckily they did not seem to bite or be otherwise harmful. Mostly they were just annoying. We found some other scenic spots, but stayed in the car when the bugs swarmed the windshield. Finally we found a little walk that seemed to be fairly bug-free and took a stroll out over the cliffs. I should point out that once again the weather is fantastic with sunny skies and temps up to 70ish.

From here, we pretty much just drove straight to the Cliffs of Moher. Driving in Ireland is incredibly scenic as you might imagine. I can't get enough of the rolling hills covered in intense green. Littered throughout the green countryside are colorful flowers, sheep, cows, and horses. Needless to say, driving through the country is not a problem for me. The rest of the car felt the early morning wake up call and dozed off. I could look in the rearview mirror and see 3 rolling heads. As far as I'm concerned, everyone should sleep when they can. Mark stayed up and we chatted away as we found the parking lot for the Cliffs.

The Cliffs of Moher cannot be seen from the road. In fact, just driving down the road, I would not know I was on top of the cliffs if it wasn't for the signs to the huge carpark. Those of you trying to avoid tourists should avoid this area. Oh my was this place the tourist trap. Firstly, they charged you per person to park/enter the visitor's center. Secondly, they added walls and a safety patrol to the area to keep the cliffs idiot-proof. Several people were standing on the wrong side of the wall and a cart with several safety-yellow clad security pulled up and chased them back over.

To fully appreciate and be able to see the cliffs, the trick is to leave the walled-in tourist area, climb over the wall and past a sign that says: "Please do not go beyond this point." Well, there is a well trampled path and several groups of people past this sign, so we all tromped past and used our common sense to stay a safe distance from the edge. Ah, there are the cliffs. We are standing on a cliffs edge looking down about 600 feet. As the waves crash below, hundreds of colonies of birds zoom around the cliff edges looking for nests and food. I hear that on a clear day with binoculars, a colony of puffins can be seen somewhere. No binoculars for us, but there was still plenty to see and plenty to photograph. We hiked out towards Hag's Head quite a ways, though not all the way to the point before turning around and coming back. The winds on the cliff's edge are intense and could blow you over the side on a stormy day if you weren't careful. As our hair whipped across our faces, we realized that the high winds did not keep the bugs away. Those same pesky black bugs were back and pelleted us like BBs. There was nothing to be done about them, so we just forged on giving the bugs a free ride to a new location as they hung on for dear life.

The visitor's center had several educational exhibits that were interesting as well as some photos and artwork of the area on the way. We spent some time here before heading back to the car. At this point the only plan was to stop for dinner in the town of Ennis and then end up at the Shannon Lodge B&B for the evening.

Mark and I have already been to Ennis, but that was a week ago on Good Friday. Today many more shops and restaurants are open. We had options! At Brogan's restaurant, we tried champ. Champ is basically mashed potatoes with cabbage and spring onions. It is delicious! The rest of the meal was delish as well. Between the five of us we had shank of lamb, black and white pudding, sausage and champs, and a salad. Everyone was happy with the food. Traditional Irish food at its best for sure at this pub/restaurant.

We had Shannon Lodge B&B all to ourselves as there are only 3 rooms here. The owner greeted us on arrival and we settled in to celebrate an early Mother's Day and recount the adventures of the past week. Mark and I still have a couple more weeks of vacation, but we will miss the family when they leave. This vacation so far has been wonderful.

Tomorrow the family is off to the airport and Mark and I switch out our rental car and start driving east towards the Rock of Cashel.

How many bagpipers does it take?

Day 10 (April 29, 2011)

Itinerary: Day in Dingle for the Pan Celtic Festival

After staying up late last night, we decided to do our own thing this morning and prepare to leave the cottage at noon. I woke up and did productive things like laundry and then decided that since it was so sunny outside that I'd hang the clothes outside and sit with them with my laptop to try and catch up on blogging. I'm falling behind. Several of the others found the channel on tv covering the Royal Wedding and enjoyed the British commentary about the arrival of the royal family. I hear the hats were quite interesting.

The weather outside was glorious again today. I think we tend to bring good weather where we go. We visited Seattle and never saw a drop of rain either. Today is going to be lovely. When everyone was ready to go, we scooted down the road about 30 minutes to the small town of Dingle, the town hosting the 40th Pan Celtic Festival this year.

Our first stop was at the little farmer's market where we found yummy lunches. The Hot Melted Raclette consisted of melted raclette cheese on french bread. The melted cheese came from half a cheese wheel held under a flame, melted, and then scraped onto the bread. We also found some homemade desserts from several homemakers in town showing off their baking. I heard no complaints about the food.

Today was all about wandering around the town. The Pan Celtic schedule informed us that musical displays and dances were to take part all day around the town. We all went in search of entertainment, splitting up along the way. All the little store fronts were super cute and very individual, so I started taking photos hoping to make a collage at a later date. Several of us found our way to the craft market going on near the church. Mark's parents made it just in time for a very interesting workshop on the traditional Irish Lace. Alan, Mark, and I wandered town to see what we could see.

The highlight of my day was entering a tiny music shop with a wall full of traditional Irish music CDs. I started talking to the owner of the store and she gave me some recommendations on good CDs with Uilleann pipe music. She even opened up several and played a few tracks so I could get a feel for the CDs before I bought any. We had a really good and somewhat long conversation before I found 2 CDs I liked. She found out I was from Houston and directed us towards a pub where the owner was from Houston as well. We said goodbye and decided to head towards the pub since it might have music playing.

We found O'Sullivans Pub where it was supposed to be. The directions were to stand on the (minuscule) bridge at the bottom of the street and look for a blue building with a guitar hanging on it. Sandra and her husband opened the bar only several weeks ago. He is a touring musician and she is from Houston. We chatted with her hoping some musicians would come to the pub and start playing. Her long-haired mini dachshund, Cricket, played with me the entire time and after a while we left to go find some other entertainment since nothing was going on here. Sandra mentioned that musicians will just show up randomly to play and her husband would join in for a little trad session (traditional Irish music). We promised to be back later.

The town sure seemed to be full of parked cars, traffic, and tour buses, but we never could find any of the promised street entertainment. That was a little disappointing, but it was a pretty day to walk around town and go souvenir shopping anyway. I just wished I knew where all the people were.

I think we were all happy with our afternoon because when we met up at 5p, all 5 of us were bustling with stories to tell. We headed back to O'Sullivans for a beer and wouldn't you know, a couple musicians came in to play. We stayed until 6pm, the time when the Pan Celtic Festival schedule called for a parade to start in the Marina. The parade mostly consisted of various school age children and families walking with banners, one for each of the 6 Celtic Nations. Trailing the parade was a group of about 20 or more bagpipers playing various tunes. The parade lasted about 5 minutes as it passed by in front of us, but we decided to tag on to the end and follow the parade as it circled town. This was clearly the best option because we got to hear all the piper music and even chat with several of the pipers when they stopped for a break. It turns out this group is actually from Pennsylvania of all places and traveled here for the parade. No, they were not in any of the other events of the festival, they just heard about the parade and came to join. Sounds like fun to me!

We had dinner at the Dingle Bay Hotel where we were all once again very happy with our food choices. This might sound strange, but my chicken caesar salad was probably the best one I've ever eaten. The rest of the group enjoyed Irish specialties like seafood pie and lamb dishes. So far on this trip the food has been amazing.

At this point we were pushing our timing to make the start of the 7:30pm choir concert. According to the guy who sold us the tickets, the concert was in the Skellig Hotel, but when we entered, it was crystal clear that there was no concert here. Luckily the front desk was amazingly helpful and drew me a map to the public school where the concert was actually held. We arrived just before the concert started.

Tonights concert, unlike the evening events going on all week, was just a concert and not a competition. We saw probably about 10 A Capella groups perform about 2-3 tunes each. They were all excellent and ranged in age from college to retired, and ranged in size from 3 to about 30. I enjoyed the music. All the music was sung in Gaelic or another Celtic language. I felt as though this really added to the authenticity of the music and the beauty of it. Several of the groups introduced themselves and their chosen tunes in both the Celtic language and then later in English.

The evening ended in a pub of course. I figured nearly all the pubs would have live traditional music tonight and during the festival. Well, not all of them. Many pubs only have music if someone comes in to play it. But several do have scheduled times for musicians. We started at a highly recommended pub, O'Flaherty's, but there was no music, just crowds of people. We ended up at a pub down the street with an accordion player and a guitarist playing good music. We all commented that we could get used to this lifestyle of going to a pub each night to listen to live music.

We stayed until midnight, but eventually we did realize that we had to go home to our cottage because tomorrow we are departing to drive to the Cliffs of Moher and then back to Shannon for a one night stay at a B&B before all the flights. With all this gorgeous weather and traditional music, I'm absolutely loving Ireland.

Lots of photos today

Day 9 (April 28, 2011)

Itinerary: Drive the Ring of Kerry

Today we drive the Ring of Kerry, known as one of the most spectacular and popular scenic drives in Ireland. The route is a 179km loop that goes out around the Iveragh Penninsula and back. We also tacked on the Skellig loop. The scenery was promised to be breathtaking with ocean views, lake views, mountains, and attractions along the way.

Luckily today we woke up to another gorgeous Ireland day with blue skies, a shining sun, and very little clouds. The temperatures climbed into the 60s today and I spent nearly the whole day in short sleeves. A perfect day for scenic views indeed!

We opted to drive in a clockwise direction and leave at 8:30 in the morning. The tour buses leave Killarney at 10:30 in the morning and move in an anti-clockwise direction. Though we'd have to pass them, it was still better too start in the opposite direction.

Our first stops were in Killarney National Park again. We noted that since we were here early in the day, the winds hadn't kicked up yet and the lakes were dead still making for some amazing views. I very rarely see a still lake through my hiking travels, so this was a sign to behold. We pulled off a few times through the park and then ended up pulling off at Ladies View again to get the full effect of the view on a clear day. This viewpoint is named for the Queen's ladies who would come up to this point from the Muckross House during her visit.

It would be nearly impossible to go through all stops we made today, but I'll point out a few. We stopped at the Staigue Ring Fort. The ring forts have walls 12 feet (!!!) thick, made of stone (no mortar or cement) and built as early as 500 BC. They are circular and about 80 feet across and 20 feet high. Needless to say, this massive construction still hangs around today. No one is really sure exactly what they were used for, but the best guess is the people who built them would have retreated here at times of tribal war. The road to get to this fort is one lane lined with bushes and hedges and about 2.5km long. After needing to back up or pull out into the bushes several times along the ride, I was ready to get out of the car.

It took us 2 tries to find the Derrynane House, built as a hunting lodge and home of Daniel O'Connell, Ireland's most influenced pre-independence politician. A self-guided tour of the house came with a 20-minute introductory video which was informative enough. Now I know who Daniel O'Connell is (basically he was a politician). The house was full of the period paintings and furniture. Most interesting was a carriage that O'Connell rode in when he was released from a brief stint in prison. The carriage was pulled by several horses and must have been at least 9 feet tall with a throne on top for him. Impressive indeed.

On our way to Waterville, which is down at sea level, we crossed Coomakesta Pass with it's major pullout and viewpoint large enough for tour buses. Up here a local entrepreneur brought his lambs and dog up to sell photos to the tourists. It was windy on the pass, but the views over both bays. Waterville was home to Charlie Chaplin and his wife for some amount of time. This tiny town put up a sculpture of him right across from our lunch stop at a pub/restaurant. By now it was after 3pm and we were the only ones eating. They had good fish and chips, burgers, and fish burgers so we were happy. Across the restaurant was a little park and then views of the ocean. The sun was still shining happily down on us and we couldn't ask for anything more.

Now we deviated off the Ring of Kerry to take the Skellig Ring Loop, a short extra coastal drive off the Ring of Kerry. On this drive we could see out to the Skellig Islands. These two tiny islands look more like triangles out in the ocean. Amazingly, they were inhabited for 600 years. There was no time for a boat ride out to see the islands. The smaller of the islands is home to thousands of birds and according to the guide book looks like it has been plummeted with a pillow due to all the feathers. The larger of the islands has a long stone staircase of about 700 stairs leading up to the ruins. I can't imagine why anyone would want to live out there when the mainland of Ireland is so near, but to each his own.

Unfortunately the Skellig Chocolate Factory has been temporarily moved and we were unable to find it, so we continued on to Portmagee on Valentia Island. Before we crossed the bridge to the islands, we had to stop at the award-winning second best toilets in Ireland. We were not impressed. Mark rated them as - functional.

Across the bridge on Valentia Island we found out that the Skellig Experience Center was closed and only open in July and August. Oh well. We continued on to Knightstown - the only town on the island. Here we circled the city 2 or 3 times looking for the Knightstown Heritage Museum, but we never could find it. In a town with about 30 buildings, you wouldn't think it would be hard to find a museum. We kept seeing signs, but never the building. Perhaps it was closed now this late in the day or only open in the summer anyway.

At this point to get back on the mainland of Ireland we had to take a tiny ferry ride across a small water crossing. The ferry ride was probably about 10 minutes in length if even that. The next stops were at two ring forts and a castle all very close together. Ballycarbery Castle was an excellent visit. Entrance required ducking under a barbed wire fence, but after that we were free to roam, scramble, and take photos. The castle it self is in ruins, but there are several staircases that lead to part of the second floor. The cows saw us coming and headed away while we scrambled around the ruins just like little kids would. I do love rock scrambling. These days I do less of this type of activity because I'm carrying a camera that would bonk into the rocks as I climb, but I didn't let it stop me this time. There was lots of ducking under or over debris and some steep climbs on crumbling staircases. I loved this castle. Coming late in the day made for some excellent photo opportunities as the light was right and the green pastureland surrounding the castle added to the ambiance. The castle had ivy growing up the sides making it about the perfect looking old ruined site.

Finally we had our fill of pretending to be 10 again and headed down the road to the Cahergall and Leacanabuaile ring forts. The parking area off the side of the road was large enough for a couple cars and we were warned by hand painted signs to walk on foot from here on. The walks took us past the cows, horses, and donkeys. At one point, a donkey went absolutely crazy in the field down below. He was hee-hawing and running about. The sound carried well, and we all scrambled up to see what all the commotion was. Cahergall was the larger fort and had stone staircases leading up the wall much like the circles in Moray, Cuzco in the Sacred Valley of Peru. The steps weren't the same, but both Mark and I were reminded of this Inca ruin when we climbed the various stepped levels in the Cahergall ring fort. Leacanabuaile was a smaller fort and seemed to have more of it's ring banked up with soil rather than placed rock. We had fun climbing around this fort as well. Overall, these 3 locations provided a very fun way to end our Ring of Kerry tour and allow us to stretch our legs after sitting in the car for so many hours.

At this point, we basically drove with the scenery. It was after 7pm when we found the Bog Museum and there was no chance of it being open for us. The last stop of the day was a surprise to us as it wasn't on the original plan. But after reading in one of our 4 tour books, we decided to visit Rosbeigh strand with it's magnificent sand beach. We arrived with about half an hour to spare before the orange sun dipped beneath the horizon. The beach was long, wide, and flat. the high tide must have reached all the way to the rock wall holding the parking area, because all the sand was shimmering with the recent water, but the tide was far out and low. The photographic opportunities were endless here. I took advantage of the reflective sand and gorgeous colors in the sky to fill up my memory card.

Mark and I commented that we always seem to find a beach with a gorgeous sunset at some point on our vacations. The sun goes down around 8:45p here in the north part of the northern hemisphere, so we were well past the dinner hour by the time we got back on the road. Our 4pm lunch meant that we were not all that hungry anyway, so we simply drove back to our cottage and heated up the various leftovers we've saved over the week.

I think we were all glad to be out of the car. The Ring of Kerry is certainly one of the high points of anyone's visits to southwest Ireland, and we couldn't have asked for a better day. The warm temperatures (70ish), the sun, and the lack of wind made for one perfect day of scenic views.

Tomorrow we can have a lazy morning before spending the day back in Dingle to partake in the Pan Celtic Festival activities.

A slew of photos today to make up for the lack of photos for the past week.

Jaunting cars

Day 8 (April 27, 2011)

Itinerary: Killarney National Park - Visit Ross Castle, Killarney for ice cream, walk to the Old Weir Bridge and Dinis Cottage, jaunting horse carriage on Gap of Dunloe

Today is another gorgeous day in Ireland. These gorgeous days where the sun in shining are few and far between. The locals are marveling at the weather this week and we are lucky to be here to enjoy. I seem to be waking up around 6:30am every morning (and going back to sleep) so the sun must come up then and shine through our window. Our Cottage is working out very well for us and we already feel at home. It sure is nice to be based out of one location for the bulk of the trip even if it does mean a lot of driving to the sights.

Our first stop today was at Ross Castle just inside Killarney National Park and just outside of Killarney. This tower castle was built during medieval times (of course) as a defense tower from the neighboring chieftains. I hear the middle ages were a rough time to live with lots of battle. Most castles in the area are tower castles built as defensive towers. Some of the defensive methods were built right into the architecture. For example, assuming that most people were right-handed, the spiral staircase was built clockwise so those coming up the stairs would be limited by the staircase on their right and not be able to swing a sword at the guards standing in the open doorway to a room. The guards in the doorway, meanwhile could swing with thier right hands with lots of space. Another defense mechanism was the way the oak doors were built with two layers of planks laid in a cross hatch pattern. Nearly impossible to knock down, most attacking members would burn down the door. However, the door took about half an hour to burn giving the guards inside a chance to plan the attack. Holes in the floor above the entry way were called murder holes because as attackers would enter the castle, the guards upstairs could drop ammunition, boiling water, or large rocks down on top of them. Of course many other defensive mechanisms were built into the castle such as narrow windows so you could shoot out, but not in; rifle holes pointing at the entrance, a walkway on the roof to drop ammunition on the attackers, and more.

We had a very interesting tour of the castle that went through the room on each of the 4 levels. The first floor was for the guards to defend, the second floor was a small dining area, the third floor had the one and only bedroom where more than 10 people would sleep on the floor, and the fourth floor was the grand hall. The grand hall of course was where the chieftain would entertain, complete with a musician area, cooking area, and eating area. The floor of this room was built of 70 tons of limestone sitting on a wicker arch over the bedroom that held all of this rock. The construction was rather amazing how an arch of wicker could become the base to hold those 70 tons of rocks. But it worked and still works today. It was neat to get a good tour of a castle since Ireland seems to be full of them. Many of them are in ruins around the country, but Ross Castle has been restored close to the original condition.

The Killarney tourist information office was helpful to help us find and plan the rest of the day. We stopped again at Murphy's Ice Cream to partake in some more Irish ice cream. This time the flavors tasted included the brown bread ice cream, honeycomb, dark chocolate, and possibly some others. Ice cream is still good.

We spent the afternoon walking to the Old Weir Bridge. It was advertised as about a 15 minute walk from the trailhead, but we stopped along the way for photos of course. The walk was along the same lake as the Muckross House we saw yesterday and at one point we could even look out across the lake and see the house. We aren't quite sure about the significance of the bridge, but it's a two-arch stone bridge crossing one of the streams connecting two of the lakes. Nearby is a little cottage called Dinis Cottage that had turned into a tea room at this point. The flowers surrounding the cottage were all in bloom, including some huge magnolias.

In the late afternoon we went to visit the Gap of Dunloe which is a winding one-lane road between two sets of mountains/hills. I had been told that we'd be able to drive the Gap, but only late in the day or early in the morning. After 6p was not late enough, however, and the jaunting cars were still running. The jaunting cars are traditional horse drawn carriage rides. One horse can pull up to 4 people in a tiny cart with only 2 wheels. It's not like the full size carriage you might be picturing. It is really more like a rickshaw. The problem with the jaunting cars on the Gap is that a) they don't want you to drive since they are losing business and b) it is hard to pass the horse jaunting cars on a one lane road.

In any case, we decided we wanted to take a jaunting car and 4 of us took the trip to the fourth lake, however far that ended up being. One of the lakes was in an echo canyon and the guide of course demonstrated the echoing. We learned a few things from him on the ride since he grew up in the area. The trip was bumpy, but a fast way to see the Gap. Otherwise, we would have been walking and would have taken a few hours that we didn't have.

Once again we were near Killarney for dinner time, so we found a place that specialized in the bocksty dish. Alan has a favorite place in Tulsa that serves the Irish bocksty and he wanted to see how the compared. The bocksty is a potato pancake with a filling. In this case everyone got a lamb curry filling. I ordered the mysterious looking nutroast which turned out to be delicious and a perfect small helping as well. The nutroast was basically a mash of cooked nuts and vegetables and spooned on the plate so it looked like meatloaf or mashed potatoes, though a much darker color. We were all very happy with our dinner and afterwards of course headed back to the Killarney Grand for their 9-11pm traditional music session. Tonight there was a trio including a fiddle, banjo, and a guitar.

(once again, a slow internet connection means no photos today; soon though!)

Fungie the dolphin

Day 7 (April 26, 2011)

Itinerary: visit Dingle, boat ride in Dingle Harbor to visit Fungie the dolphin, walk around town, drive the Dingle Peninsula loop, attend the opening ceremony to the Pan Celtic festival, find dinner and music in a pub

The week feels as though it's half over, but today is only Tuesday. For those of us on vacation, that's a good thing. For those of you at work, I'm sure your week will eventually end. We woke up this morning to more gray skies and chilly weather (48 or 50 degrees) and the sun didn't come out until late afternoon. Then we only saw the sun for about 15 minutes anyway. But it was still a great day for vacationing.

My first step this morning was to go find a Petrol station to fill up the rental car. The gas stations around here don't open very early, but I was able to find one that was open before 8:30am. The pump had an old-style feel to it, and there was no computer communicated to the attendant my price. I simply just told the guy behind the counter how much it should be.

Then we were off to Dingle. Dingle is about 30 minutes from our cottage and straight down the road, so it was easy to navigate. We were hoping to find a ferry/boat trip out to Great Blasket Island to see both a variety of wildlife and also learn about the history of the now deserted island. The islands used to be inhabited by farmers up until the mid-1900s when they finally realized that they were too far from civilization and they needed to move off. However, we found out that the sea was too choppy today. Instead we settled for a harbour tour to see the famous Fungie the dolphin of Dingle Harbor. Fungie stays here even when the other dolphins leave to play with the boats in the harbor.

Since we stayed in the small harbor area, there were no waves to speak of and our boat stayed at a nice slow pace. At this rate, I don't think I even needed the dramamine. But I've learned when it comes the sea, it is always best to be prepared. The first part of our trip was more of a harbor cruise as we drove around looking for Fungie. We had some good views back to Dingle and some views of various old towers built near the mouth of the harbor. At the mouth, the tall rocks at the shore line had several caves that looked interesting. Just as we had started to wonder if we were going to get our ride for free because there had been no Fungie sighting, we found him. The legends are true....he does love to play with the boats. Once we found he, our boat when racing up next to him and he swam next to us in our wake, jumping up several times to get a good peek at us. Meanwhile, our boat felt as though it would tip sideways into the water with everyone pushed to one side to get photos. It sure was fun to play in the harbor with him. He was right next to the boat after all.

Back on land, we took a little tour through the town stopping at shops and eventually finding a cafe to eat lunch. The main street name was Goat Street, and the Goat Street cafe had delicious seafood chowder, bacon/leek/tomato tarts, curry, and fish. We were pretty satisfied, but still had time to stop at the Dingle ice cream shop called Murphy's that makes their own ice cream right here in Dingle. We had heard about the Guinness flavor of ice cream that they are known for, but apparently in their rotation oof 30 flavors, today the flavor was not available. We did see other flavors of the are with sea salt, brown bread, whiskey, and Baileys. I'm pretty sure everyone was happy after our stop.

At this point in the afternoon it was nearly 3pm and a perfect time to head out on our Dingle Peninsula drive. Rick Steves was our tour guide as we followed his kilometer by kilometer guide through the 47 mile/30km loop. As I watched the km gauge, Mark read out the various items of interest that we were passing. This area is the western most tip of Europe and the landscape is fairly hilly and rocky. At some point the Irish decided to move the rocks and farm/raise livestock here. The rocks were moved into fences made of stone that wind up the hills in rectangular shapes. One side of a hill almost looked as if someone was trying to spell out something in stone fences. The extra rocks were also used to make stone houses. We saw many well-built stone houses that had been abandoned during the potato famine and are still standing today. The houses have walls more than a foot thick and are built water-tight....very impressive looking. Now 500,000 sheep live on the penninsula. Most of the houses are newer, leaving the historic houses standing. But the stone fences are still used to hold sheep and cattle. Spring and lambing season is a great time to walk around the sheep farms. All the little ones are adorable with their high pitched baaaaa as they cry for attention.

The coast line around here is tall and rocky with only a couple scattered sand beaches. It made for some gorgeous views. Even with the clouds, we could still see the Great Blasket Islands west of the tip. One looked like a sleeping giant, complete with his hand on his beer belly. We found the oldest Christian church built in the 12th century, small and made of stone. The surrounding cemetery had some recent additions and was full of Celtic crosses and interesting headstones.

Traveling during the off-season has it's perks since the normally bumper to bumper loop was fairly free of cars and it was easy to find parking spots. I'm getting used to driving on the left. The hardest part of course are the turns. Parallel parking poses a unique challenge just because I'm sitting on the opposite side of the car. I've never been good at parallel parking anyway. At this point, the most challenging part of driving is the limitations of our Opel "minivan." It is an automatic transmission, but drives like a manual with an inexperienced driver. The gear changes are rough and sometimes late. Also, there is no forward idle while the car is in drive. On hills, I keep my left foot on the brake and right foot on the gas so as not to roll down the hill into an obstacle.

Back in Dingle, we headed towards the Skellig Hotel as this was the location for the opening ceremonies for the Pan Celtic Festival. I had no idea what to expect, but I was expecting something a bit larger. The number of chairs in the conference room seemed to small. Though the schedule told us the event was starting at 7:30, nothing happened until 8, but we were there early enough to grab a chair around a table and partake in the free wine and coffee. The room did fill up, but still less people than I would have expected. For the first 30 minutes, the opening ceremonies consisted of the heads of the Celtic Festival and Celtic Nations speaking in Gaelic, Welsh, Irish, and other Celtic languages introducing everything and everyone. They did go back and translate most of it into English, but the ceremony felt long with all the translations. Eventually, they brought out a school group to start entertaining us with music, but we didn't stay much longer past this point. It was 9pm and time for dinner!

The Irish do not eat as late as the Europeans and are usually done eating by 8pm. We had to think differently in order to work with this schedule as now we are used to eating late while traveling. Luckily, we found a pub that was serving food until 9:30. Dingle Pub had traditional Irish food and live musicians to entertain us. Tonight's group had two players, an accordion and keyboard and both were blaring through the speakers located directly behind our table. Needless to say, all conversation stopped as soon as those started playing.

After dinner, we made the drive home and to bed. Tomorrow we'll take it easy in the morning and then go back to Killarney National Park to find some hiking and some castles.

(No pictures today due to a slow connection)

Bottle feeding a lamb

Day 6 (April 25, 2011)

Itinerary: Sleep in and leave at noon; Torc Falls, Kissane Sheep Farm, Lady View pulloff, Muckross House tour, wander in the park, dinner and pub in Killarney

Vacations were made for sleeping in and that's what we did today. Mark and I went for a stroll down the road from our cottage and found many bleating lambs and a few horses. The roads here are narrow without any form of shoulder. The bushes and hedges grow up to the pavement, so walking along the road can be tough. Luckily I have only seen conscientious drivers so far.

At noon we headed out in the car towards Killarney National Park to catch a few tours today. First we stopped at Torc Falls, one of the more popular spots to go walking. The waterfall was less than a 10 minute walk and soon we were sitting with the falls eating a picnic lunch of peanut butter and nutella sandwiches (Mark's and my favorite easy roadside lunch.) The falls were taller than expected. I really don't know of too many named falls in Ireland except these. Beyond the viewing area, a steeper trail extended into the woods for loop hikes of 30 minutes or an hour long.

Tour schedules dictated our timing today, so we did not have time to explore and instead sheep dog demonstrations in the spring and will hold shearing demonstrations in the summer around July. The two owners were extremely nice. When we first arrived they were in the process of bottle feeding several lambs in the barn, so we were handed two bottles to help feed the littlest ones. I love this place! I held a bottle to the mouth of what I thought was the cutest lamb there and he hungrily sucked the bottle dry. Meanwhile about 2 other lambs saw what I was up to and started nosing their way into my lap hoping for some food as well. Vacation could end right here and I'd be happy.

However, after bottle feeding, the German tour bus who had originally booked this special demonstration time pulled up and the sheep dog demonstration started in German! We were handed a couple sheets of explanation in English to follow along. This was so similar to various experiences that we've had in other countries with language barriers. I guess even in English-speaking countries you sometimes won't understand everything going on.

The Kissane's had 2 sheep dogs showing us how they round up sheep. One was only 11 months old and it takes 2 years to train a dog. However, she was pretty good at her job. Both dogs wanted to work. While one was working, the other was tied up, whining and carrying on trying to get out there. While the owners were talking, the dogs would try and round up the sheep on their own. We were especially amused when after the sheep were herded into the pen, the puppy would come in and periodically scare the sheep into submission. She looked like she was having the best time in the world.

We learned that wool does not have the value it used to. These are Scottish black-faced sheep and their wool is only good for carpets and the like. The value is so low that they might only get about 650 Euros a year for their 1000 sheep. Sheep farmers will also raise sheep for food, but this far tends to get extra money by renting out their sheep, or later selling them. Demonstrations like ours bring in 40% of to their money for the year. Also, because conditions are so bad in the winter, with a little snow and just so little grass growth, they have to bring in enough feed for their flock every day in the winter. In any case, we were happy to contribute.

Next stop was the Muckross House. On the way we passed by a viewpoint called Lady's View with a sweeping view over the lake. Here we also found a Leprechaun crossing sign. We made it in time for the 4:40 Muckross House tour. First we walked through the gardens on the very large estate. There are two ways of approaching the most popular attraction of the park. We came in by car to the car park, but we could have opted to take a jaunting horse ride through a tree-lined path leading to the front of the house.

The gardens were extensive with many different flowers and flowering trees. Springtime is a colorful time in Ireland. Our one hour tour through the house was given by a tour guide who had done this tour one too many times. She had her memorized script and breezed through discussing each piece of furniture or decoration in the room. We did get to hear the history of just about every piece. Some of the more interesting pieces included an over-sized 3-ton pool table! The cues for the table were even longer than standard and the floor had to be reinforced to hold it. The house was built in the mid-1800s and is Victorian in style. An American couple purchased the house as a wedding present for their daughter and these Americans owned the house for quite some time. Many of their portraits still hang. Probably the next most interesting thing was a couple knobs in each room that were connected by wire to 30 bells in the basement. These bells all had a different tone so the servants knew which room was calling for them. The last interesting fact that I'll bore you with is that the owners of the house prepared for 6 years for the Queen's visit. Can you imagine spending that long getting ready for a house guest? Or even knowing exactly what's going to happen in 6 years?

After our tour, we walked the grounds some more to check out the Muckross cows. Mark and Alan started skipping stones on the lake after a little misty rain. Eventually we had to leave as the gates closed at 7pm.

We found a restaurant in Killarney serving traditional fish and chips. I had a traditional Irish stew that was incredibly tasty. Alan had a steak sambo which turned out to be more like a steak sandwich. In any case we were all happy with our food. We retired to the Killarney Grand pub at 9pm for a traditional Irish music session from 9 to 11pm. We didn't realize how lucky we were to arrive just before 9p and get a seat. By the time the night was up, the place was packed, standing room only with barely any room to enter the pub. The band was lively and very good. With a guitar/vocalist, a flute, fiddle, elan pipes, and an accordion, we were treated to a great evening. In fact we plan to come back and visit again since they seem to have traditional music every night at 9pm.

Great day today! Tomorrow we will head into Dingle to hopefully take a boat ride to the Great Blasket Islands and see some of the Pan Celtic Festival.

(sorry about the lack of photos, but I'm still on a slow internet connection.)