Back to earlier starts today with breakfast at 7:15 and leaving at 8 for a drive along the Dingle Peninsula. It is a grey and misty morning.
As we drive there is a bright rainbow ahead of us. It is quite a challenge for everyone to get photos of it through the bus windows.
A lot of the area on the peninsula was used in the film Ryan's Daughter like Inch Beach. The hedgerows are beginning to change to the stone walls to divide fields.
There is a steep climb up the hills with the bus frequently stopping and then slowly inching past the cars on the other side of the narrow road. One bend is called the Devil's Elbow due to how hard it is for a large vehicle to go around. We creep around but the bus crunches on something - we never find out just what. The road drops sharply away down the cliffs and it is a bit nerve wracking for those of us on that side of the bus.
Funniest sight, and as it turns out, highlight of the day is the rolling sheep. They are penned in paddocks that slope steeply towards the cliff edge. As I watched, one sheep laid down. Next moment he is belly up and slowly rolling down the hill. He stuck out his legs straight to stop himself. Very funny.
On side of the road in one part are stone huts called beehives which were monk;s cells. There are many ruined cottages along the sides on the road. They are small - just one room wide and sometimes only one or two long. We are headed to the Blasket Islands Centre. These islands just off the coast were abandoned in the 1950s. The people who had lived on them spoke Gaelic as their first language and lived very simply, the same way the ancestors had for years before them. When the weather is rough it is not possible to get to or from the island, and this prompted the forced abandonment as no health services could be accessed. The Centre is ok - there is a short film which I expected to be about their way of life but turned out to be more about the authors that the islands had spawned.
We stop at Dingle Bay for lunch. There is a dolphin there called Fungie who likes to interact with people. We didn't see him. I try to local award winning ice cream called Murphys. It doesn't seem that special to me. I am stuffed from all the food we are eating and throw half of it away. Dingle, like so many of the other places we stop at, is just geared towards tourists. Cafes, bars and souvenir shops abound.
When we get back, we do a laundry run. The laundries open at 9ish and close around 6 - not very tourist orientated. The still damp washing is draped all around our room.
Tonight we had an included dinner at Danny Mann pub. There is singing afterwards but we don't stay to hear it. I really don't feel very well and we both decide an early night would be good. Today was really a nothing day and the least enjoyable so far. Mile after mile of the same countryside. At first it was all new and nice but the steady drone of the bus motor and the passing miles soon saw most of us dozing off.
Killarney's biggest industry for the past 250 years is tourism and it shows. The streets are just full of the same things - pubs, cafes, souvenir type shops, one after the other. It is not like seeing a normal town at all. Quite disappointing.
As we drive there is a bright rainbow ahead of us. It is quite a challenge for everyone to get photos of it through the bus windows.
A lot of the area on the peninsula was used in the film Ryan's Daughter like Inch Beach. The hedgerows are beginning to change to the stone walls to divide fields.
There is a steep climb up the hills with the bus frequently stopping and then slowly inching past the cars on the other side of the narrow road. One bend is called the Devil's Elbow due to how hard it is for a large vehicle to go around. We creep around but the bus crunches on something - we never find out just what. The road drops sharply away down the cliffs and it is a bit nerve wracking for those of us on that side of the bus.
Funniest sight, and as it turns out, highlight of the day is the rolling sheep. They are penned in paddocks that slope steeply towards the cliff edge. As I watched, one sheep laid down. Next moment he is belly up and slowly rolling down the hill. He stuck out his legs straight to stop himself. Very funny.
On side of the road in one part are stone huts called beehives which were monk;s cells. There are many ruined cottages along the sides on the road. They are small - just one room wide and sometimes only one or two long. We are headed to the Blasket Islands Centre. These islands just off the coast were abandoned in the 1950s. The people who had lived on them spoke Gaelic as their first language and lived very simply, the same way the ancestors had for years before them. When the weather is rough it is not possible to get to or from the island, and this prompted the forced abandonment as no health services could be accessed. The Centre is ok - there is a short film which I expected to be about their way of life but turned out to be more about the authors that the islands had spawned.
We stop at Dingle Bay for lunch. There is a dolphin there called Fungie who likes to interact with people. We didn't see him. I try to local award winning ice cream called Murphys. It doesn't seem that special to me. I am stuffed from all the food we are eating and throw half of it away. Dingle, like so many of the other places we stop at, is just geared towards tourists. Cafes, bars and souvenir shops abound.
When we get back, we do a laundry run. The laundries open at 9ish and close around 6 - not very tourist orientated. The still damp washing is draped all around our room.
Tonight we had an included dinner at Danny Mann pub. There is singing afterwards but we don't stay to hear it. I really don't feel very well and we both decide an early night would be good. Today was really a nothing day and the least enjoyable so far. Mile after mile of the same countryside. At first it was all new and nice but the steady drone of the bus motor and the passing miles soon saw most of us dozing off.
Killarney's biggest industry for the past 250 years is tourism and it shows. The streets are just full of the same things - pubs, cafes, souvenir type shops, one after the other. It is not like seeing a normal town at all. Quite disappointing.
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