May 17 Killarney

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Breakfast really was at 7:45am today and not a minute sooner. This is a huge beautiful hotel with the largest and prettiest dining room we’ve had, but they had breakfast police on duty at the door and you weren’t having breakfast early here.

It was 41° F and sunny this morning and we couldn’t go to breakfast early so we went out and across the street and took a short wander into the Killarney National Park.  There were tulips and azaleas in bloom. Cherry trees and bluebells and rhododendron were in bloom. Kudos to their gardeners.  It was a refreshing little walk.

Breakfast was a bit more variety than we have seen in the past days as well. Since they were policing seating this was the first breakfast that we haven’t eaten sitting by ourselves. It is a different dynamic and an earlier start for the day to the group experience.

This morning we walked out across the street and loaded jaunting cars which were horse drawn wagons. We had 8 passengers in ours pulled by Sally and driven by Michael, who someone had wound up and he never wound down. He was just running through nonstop one-liners and rarely stopped. He was working. We rode the horse carts through a small part of Killarney National Park. We did view Ross Castle in the distance as well as the ruins of an island monastery and 2 different types of deer. We also saw some ducks land in Lough Leane. (Pronounced lock lean) They let us off near a gate by the Cathedral and we crossed the Deenagh River to the coach. The morning ride was extremely scenic and the nice weather held. This is the first beautiful weather day we have had since Edinburgh.

We rode in the coach to the Gap of Dunloe for a 30 minute comfort stop at Moriarty’s with Irish Coffees. We did not have Irish Coffees.  Tommy said Moriarty’s had nice men’s wear. Clay bought a beautiful Magee Donegal tweed sports coat. I bought a very nice scarf and a gift.

Next we had a quick photo stop at some Ogham Stones. This was an alphabet used in 5^th century Ireland. These stones are still standing around in seemingly random spots in Ireland.

We headed around the mountains named MacGillycuddy’s Reeks and over Moll’s Gap on our way to the colorful little town called Kenmare. We were there for about 2 hours for lunch. We walked out to see the Kenmare Stone Circle first.

Then we walked back the way we came and went in a supermarket where the locals were lined up buying takeout sandwiches and other lunches. Clay got a tuna salad sandwich and potato chips or crisps and a Diet Coke and I had a toffee hoop’s yogurt. It was all good.

We sat on a park bench and watched the local Catholic school kids getting lunch and streaming back to school. We visited with a local woman who had the interesting Kerry accent that Tommy had warned us about. She made ice cream and sold it from a small cart on the street. Of course, we had ice cream cones from here. We got 2 cones for €5. We each had 2 flavors. They were delicious. We walked over to the bridge over the River Finnihy and saw a heron standing there. Everywhere you look it is just crazy scenic.

This afternoon we drove part of, maybe most of, the Ring of Kerry in the traditional counterclockwise direction. It was amazing. We got out at Ladies’ View and at Torc Falls. It was raining a little by this time, but wow we had a gorgeous day.

We drove back to Killarney then. Tommy let us know that we were having early dinner at 6pm so we could go to see Celtic Steps tonight. We dropped our bags in the room and went out for a walk in Killarney. I wanted to replace my Sea Bands. I found some pink patterned ones! Bonus! The woman I loaned my old gray ones to found the other one and has worn them all day, so I will just give her the case and tell her to keep them. Clay went for another walk in the park but didn’t go far because it was raining off and on again.

I forgot to make notes about dinner, so I've forgotten about it. I must have been really tired too, because I didn't make any notes about the Celtic Steps show either. We did really enjoy the show and found it both entertaining and informative. Tickets were €25pp. It was a quality production and we were happy that they put on an extra performance on one of their nights off.

Well, the end is in sight and we are getting worried about luggage weight to get back to London now. Oh well. Bags out at 6:50am tomorrow, breakfast at 7am and bus departs at 8am.  Tomorrow we visit Blarney Castle and have the opportunity to kiss the Blarney Stone. We have a shopping stop at Blarney Woolen Mills, but I expect we’re done! Our next stop is Cobh (pronounced cove) in County Cork for an Irish Coffee and traditional Irish music. We continue to Waterford for a locally guided walking tour. We are in the Granville Hotel in Waterford for one night, our next to last night.

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