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Bags out at 7:20am, breakfast at 7:30am and bus leaves at 8:30am. We’ll see what Tommy does with the seat rotation today. He caught us in the hall before breakfast yesterday and told us when he filled out the seating chart for the day that he forgot us and so rather than redo it, he just put us in the back row. He promised he’d bring us back up the next day. But, now he has the 6 new people in the mix for the end of the trip. We’ll see.
Bags out at 7:20am, breakfast at 7:30am and bus leaves at 8:30am. We’ll see what Tommy does with the seat rotation today. He caught us in the hall before breakfast yesterday and told us when he filled out the seating chart for the day that he forgot us and so rather than redo it, he just put us in the back row. He promised he’d bring us back up the next day. But, now he has the 6 new people in the mix for the end of the trip. We’ll see.
We were right next to the seats we had yesterday. Oh well.
Today we are supposed to visit the Foynes Flying Boat Museum. I think we are somewhere on the outskirts of Shannon and we are
supposed to skirt Limerick to get there. We are supposed to drive the Dingle Peninsula and stop in the town of Dingle on our way to Killarney. We should be
at the Killarney Plaza Hotel for the next 2 nights.
We went down to breakfast early since the restaurant opened
at 7am. It was lucky we did because it was a mob scene by 7:30am when we left.
There were 2 CIE groups at the same time. I had porridge today. I was sick of
“bacon” and eggs. I also had some of the
raw oats stuff (granola?) with some loose yogurt and that was OK. Clay had
everything as usual.
We drove past the outskirts of Limerick this morning on our
way to Foynes. The port of Foynes was a terminal for air traffic between the US
and Europe in the late 1930s into the 1940s. The Foynes air terminal was also
the birthplace of Irish Coffee. They had an interesting museum with a replica
of a Boeing 314 that would have carried passengers to land on the Shannon
River. They also held an Irish Coffee making seminar. First heat the glass by
putting a spoon in it and pouring in hot water. When the glass is warm, pour
out the water and put in a spoonful of brown sugar (looked like demerara), pour
in coffee allowing room for the other ingredients and stir to dissolve the
sugar, follow with a shot of Powers (only!) Irish whiskey plus a splash. Finally,
hold the spoon back up over the glass and slowly pour whipping cream allowing
it to float off the back of the spoon and onto the surface of the coffee. Do
not stir; drink the hot through the cold. Then we had an opportunity to buy an Irish Coffee or to shop in their Gift Shop and use their toilets.
We drove on to Tralee for a comfort stop at a bus station.
Then we drove out to the town of Dingle on the Dingle Peninsula. It stopped
raining for a short while and we had some spectacular views.
We had lunch in
Dingle. Clay and I went to the Marina Bar. It was nice and good food. Clay had a Guinness. He also had
the traditional bacon and cabbage special which had been recommended to us back
in Dublin as a good Irish dish. It was good. I had the Toasty special which was
toasted ham and cheese with onions and tomatoes. I got it with just ham and
cheese and corn chips. It was cut into 4 triangles set on their crust ends in a
line on the plate, I liked it. The corn chips clinched it though. Later when we
were comparing lunch notes with some other passengers, they were jealous that I
had a meal without potatoes! They asked how it was possible and I told them I
just told the waiter not to bring me any chips! I bought a version of a Foxford polka dotted lambswool blanket I have seen at numerous stops when I found one I
thought wouldn’t clash with our living room. It was expensive. I think about €90,
but that was about the same price everywhere I had seen it. By the way, it
looks great in the living room and I love it!
On the way back off the Dingle Peninsula, we had a photo
stop at Inch Beach. Tommy pointed out some mountain chain I forgot the name of
and pointed out the cloud enshrouded peak as the highest in Ireland which was
interesting because I thought he had earlier told us that Croagh Patrick was
the highest.
This afternoon we passed signs to Lisdoonvarna for the matchmaking festival. I remember a movie
about that and wonder if it was actually filmed there. According to IMDb.com, no, so I guess not.
We’ll have to look for it again along with others filmed in
Ireland that Tommy has talked about and some he hasn’t like The
Commitments. He has talked about The
Quiet Man, The Field, Ryan’s Daughter and some others that we’ve forgotten the
names.
We got to the Killarney Plaza Hotel by about 4pm. We are in
room 310 right by the elevators and ice machine. It is an attractive room with
a large mirrored closet containing a pants press. The bathroom is large with a
shower over tub and no towel warmers. We have 2 single beds about 4 inches
apart, 2 night stands, 2 chairs and a table, a desk and chair, a TV and a tea
set, there are 2 bathrobes and a hairdryer and a safe. I guess the safe and
hair dryer have been in all the other hotels as well. I just failed to mention
them. We have a view of Killarney National Park across the street.
Dinner tonight is at the hotel restaurant at 7pm. Tommy says
it looks like we can’t go to Celtic Steps because there is some kind of big
conference in town and they bought out the entire show. He has left messages in
case they decide to do another show on our 2nd night and he’ll let
us know if it becomes possible. Clay had salad, leg of lamb and a trio of
desserts from the buffet. I had a goat cheese quiche and pasta and a strawberry
Pavlova for dessert.
Clay says there are lots of chemists/pharmacists in walking
distance. That is good because it looks like I am in the market for new Sea Bands too now. One of our new fellow passengers said sausage made her sick this
morning and she was nauseous all morning on the bus, so when I heard about it I
offered her my Sea Bands. She is still wearing one tonight but says she only
has the one and doesn’t know anything about the other. She is feeling much better
but no good deed goes unpunished. We did see Sea Bands at the Boots at the last
airport where we bought Ear Planes, but better to have them before you know you
need them.
Breakfast tomorrow is at 7:45am. Bus leaves at 8:45am. We
are going on jaunting car rides in the morning. They are horse drawn carts and
evidently that is just what is done in Killarney. We ride them to Ross Castle.
Then the bus will pick us up again. We’ll view Lough Leane. We’ll drive part of
the Ring of Kerry and see Ladies’ View before returning to the hotel.
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