day 2 – dingle part 2

After getting through the pass, we finally arrived in Dingle to properly start around the peninsula.

 

 

“Undertow” by Austin McQuinn

Our next stop was rather unassuming – nothing but a pretty view.

And we break out the zoom lens.

  

Then something really cool happened.  A horse trailer pulled into the small parking lot that we had stopped in.

It turned out that they were exercising racehorses in the ocean.

 
Super cool.

Next stop

I’m pretty sure this is one of the Skellig Islands.
 

to be continued again….

Day 1: Arrival, Adare, Tralee
Day 2: Dingle Peninsula Part 1

day 2 – dingle peninsula

As I mentioned, we stayed the night at The Shores B&B on one side of Connors Pass which leads into Dingle Peninsula.  Here are a few shots of the view that we were awake enough to enjoy in the morning.

 

And a shot out our bathroom window because we thought it was really cool the way the clouds seemed to almost settle on the backside of the house

   

For our second day (and our first full day), we set out to drive the Dingle Peninsula.  It’s similar to the Ring of Kerry but shorter, less touristy, and you can drive it yourself if you’re brave enough (you would usually take a bus around the Ring).  Will, being a brave soul who likes to drive on the “wrong” side of the road, was very willing to embrace the challenge.

To actually begin the drive along the peninsula, you have to make it through the rather narrow Connors Pass.  Mom had recalled a waterfall at the start so that was our first stop.

  
The road is so narrow that even though it is two way traffic, they don’t even bother to paint the center line on the road.  The cars just have to squeeze by one another.  And for our added enjoyment – they were doing road work this particular day.

 
Here’s a first look at the behemoth Range Rover we had for 2 weeks.

 
A view looking at the road ahead.  At least it wasn’t foggy like the first time that Mom had driven it.

Not too much farther along we encountered another pull off and stopped again – we “hopped” in and out of the car a lot this day.

 

This guy, well, I think he’s crazy or perhaps had a death wish since he was biking the pass.  At least we could assume from the direction he was facing that he was nearly through the pass rather than just beginning.

We encountered this little sheepy on the side of the road just after we continued on with our journey.

And this post is getting too big memory-wise so I’m going to post it and continue in another.

Day 1: Arrival, Adare, Tralee

drowning in pictures

so…. I just checked and through the first 8 days of our 14 day trip on 3 cameras, I have over 5GB of photos. 

There are 400 pictures from just our second day (on Dingle Peninsula). 

But only around 100 – 150 each for the next couple of days after that.

Needless to say, trying to sort through them and decide which ones to post is proving to be a mightily difficult task.

It’s going to be a bit harder to write posts than I thought.

Yes, I’m making excuses for myself for the lag.

day 1 – arrival, adare, tralee

We arrived about 9am on Wednesday, 15 September about an hour before we were supposed to arrive.  Not that we minded getting off the plane sooner – a 757 is not the plane for a transatlantic flight, let me tell you.  I don’t think any of us were comfortable on the plane at all.

As per usual, our car wasn’t ready nor was it available so we got a “free” upgrade from a Ford Galaxy to a Range Rover after waiting for about a half hour for them to fix the puncture (aka flat tire to Americans).

this picture is a combination of something like 12 hours in airports and planes (BWI to JFK to SNN) and Mom’s annoying habit of saying she’s going to take a picture but then just taking it before her subjects are actually ready.  Awesome, right?  I’m not even sure why I’m sharing it with the internet but I feel like it.

We finally got on our way though it took a bit to figure out how to get everything in the behemoth (Range Rovers really are large vehicles) and stopped in Adare Co. Limerick for lunch.

My lunch:

Tomato basil soup that oddly tasted a lot like thin pasta sauce.  I didn’t care – I was so hungry for real food.

But really Adare is known for its old school thatched roofed cottages.

This church holds a special place from our very first trip to Ireland in ‘93 because it was how we figured out that the Irish get married any ole day of the week when we came across a wedding on a Tuesday.

Sadly it’s under restoration.

A few shots outside the church:

     

Including some of Mom’s annoying guerilla picture taking.

After brief exploration, we continued south along the coast past Tralee Co. Kerry to find our bed for the night, The Shores.

Lovely place with a lovelier view at one edge of the Dingle Peninsula which was our plan for our first full day.  For now we just crashed for a bit, got cleaned up and headed back to town (Tralee) for some dinner.

View Day 1 - Ireland in a larger map

sorry folks…

We’ve only had internet twice since we arrived in Ireland and the first time was frustratingly spotty so I wasn’t prepared with any posts when we did find very good internet service.  Now I only have the tiniest proportion of the pictures on my computer but I’ll post a few just to give you something to look at (Hi Mrs. Hein – just for you!)

Adare, Co Clare – our first day

 

Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry – our first full day (Day 2)

Muckross House, Kilarney, Co. Kerry – Day 3

Rock of Cashel, Co Tipperary – Day 4