Month: October 2008

We both slept well after some yummy pub food and a soccer match in Tralee. Sara wanted the “stripes” to win. Our host Tim was very nice and made us a nice Irish breakfast in the morning. We had to talk to another guest that was very outspoken. He left soon enough.

We headed out of Tralee towards the Dingle Peninsula and filled up on petrol, no spilling on the foot this time. There were breezy blue skies ahead and we were ready to go to some “lookouts” that were marked on our handy road atlas, thanks Roberta! Honestly it’s too amazing to describe. All day long we drove through mountains, ocean views, river valleys, villages, and more. It was so unbelievable. Our pictures probably won’t do it all justice. I think I took over 100 photos today. So don’t expect me to pick out the best just yet.

After we exhausted the Dingle drive, and believe me I didn’t want to leave, we headed back through Tralee and onto to Adare. Adare is a small little town just outside of Limerick. We stopped in at the Coatesland House and were greeted warmly.

After settling in, we went into Adare to check out the town. All of a twenty minute walk and we’ve seen it. We are planning on going into town for grub and hopefully this time some live Irish music at a pub.

It’s predicted to rain and storm all day today and the forecast didn’t disappoint. We drove the Ring of Kerry in torrential rain and wind. We could both see that it would be one of the most breathtaking and beautiful drives in all of Ireland but the weather didn’t like us very much. We, or I did attempt getting out of the car a few times but it really wasn’t worth the soaking I received.

We had major road floodings on our way into Tralee where we are staying tonight. We had to re-route several times. Thank goodness we didn’t get our car stuck or flooded. We heard on local radio that lots of cars were flooded and being abandoned. But we made it into town. We didn’t have good directions on the location of our stay tonight so we stopped into an internet cafe and that’s where I’m writing from.

Update: Here is one of only three photos I took all day. It was only sprinkling at this point. It was still amazingly windy and it was hard not to get a blurry photo. Driving the Ring of Kerry was such a waste of petrol and time.

Google saved our butts again so we are off to find our B&B. Tomorrow we drive the Dingle Peninsula and it should be a better weather day so hopefully we’ll get good pictures to show.

P.S. – from Sara – I’m trying to be a good navigator to Ben, but they don’t name or mark a lot of their roads in small towns. This is what they said on the radio about the flooding: “Yeah, that road up by the rugby club is flooded, and also the one that sort of runs parallel to it.” Well, gee thanks, that helps us Americans a lot.

p.s. – from Ben – Sara is an excellent and very helpful navigator, we wouldn’t be making it around so easily without her! We now know that 3 o’clock is 9 o’clock at roundabouts! Thanks babe you rock!

Updates may be sparse the next few days. We aren’t sure when the next wi-fi B&B will be. Sorry I don’t have pictures these last two times. There will be plenty to come. If you want more updates send a few euros our way and we’ll stop at internet cafes every day. Just kidding.

It’s Thursday but I’m trying to catch you up a bit because we didn’t have internet last night in our B&B. We had free wi-fi in our hotel lobby in Dublin and free wi-fi in both of the first two B&Bs we stayed at. Last night was a cute little place but they didn’t have any.

It was a blue sky day, perfect weather! We stopped just outside of Kinsale at the Charles Fort in the morning. One of the biggest most well preserved star forts in all of Ireland. It was very informative and interesting. The fort ground stretched about 12 acres so there was a lot of exploring to be had. We could see sailboats from the fort in and out of the harbour.

Then we made our way back through Cork and out towards Blarney. We stopped at a shopping center just north of Cork and spent way too much time trying to buy a card reader for my camera and snack food.

Blarney wasn’t far from Cork and we made good time. Blarney was quite empty of tourist so we had the place pretty much to ourselves. It’s one of the biggest tourist traps but we enjoyed the heck out of the place. Sara and I both kissed the Blarney stone unceremoniously.

We had an easy drive into Kenmare which was by far the cutest and easiest tiny little town to drive in. We held out until 8pm to go to a local pub for dinner and live music but the music wasn’t to be found which was a bit of a bummer. But we both had a great meal.

Our room was cozy and we slept well.

Driving was much easier today. It helped that all the roads we were taking were major roads. Seriously it’s hard to describe how narrow some of these roads are that are marked 80kph. That’s like doing 50mph with heavy oncoming traffic on Willoughby Run. Yikes! But we are all good. Its fun!

We woke up and had a great breakfast and headed off to the Waterford crystal factory not far from Tra Morh in Waterford. It was an awesome experience. Those dudes are just locked in the zone when they are cutting crystal. It’s probably a lot of muscle memory, but still! I got some great photos from that place and Sara got to help make a crystal pitcher!!

Then we made our way north west for two castles. One in ruins up high on a hill and the other very well kept in a river valley. Both were breathtaking. The weather was much more pleasant and we got to see several more rainbows. Go figure!

After the second castle, which I had to pull Sara away from(she even picked out her own bedroom there!) we headed south through Cork to Kinsale. Kinsale is tiny, no microscopic. The streets are so narrow you’d think they were only one-ways, nope you have to cram two cars in them, and when you can’t then you have to drive half your car on the sidewalks just to pass, yes I did. It was pretty wild.

We found our B&B which is every bit as nice as our Dublin hotel and made our way back into Kinsale for dinner. Sara and I ate at a place that served just us. It must really be the end of ‘the season”.

It was a very good day, spirits were high, lots of blue skies, and only a few wrong turns.

-The End

It’s 9:30 am and we are justing checking our email before we head out to pick up our car. I’m anxious to see what kind of make and model we get. There are so many awesome cars out here! Sara is oblivious to all of it. Citroen, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, and a million more. Awesome little cars, I can’t wait!

The National Library of Ireland open at 9:30 so we are going to try to find a parking spot nearby first before we head out of town. It wasn’t open on the weekend so we couldn’t check it out even though we had walked past it several times. It holds the single most important collection of Irish documentary heritage in the world.

Heading out!

UPDATE 10:53PM
We made it to our B&B. What we learned today…. it’s okay to get lost, roundabouts are only a little bit scary, gasoline is “petrol” and they only have 95 octane(which smells really good when spilled onto your shoe), Ireland is very old but beautiful!!!

We drove south through the Wicklow mountains. Visited Powerscourt gardens and Glendalough Monastic city. Both very very old. I’m tired so here are some photos.