Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Sunday, Monday - Dingle

We drove from Limerick to Dingle, the main town on the Dingle Peninsula in the west of Ireland. It's not so well known as the Iveraugh Peninsula below it, with the Ring of Kerry, but it's gorgeous.



Our route took us west from Limerick, then south through Tralee - getting accustomed to signage, roundabouts, etc. all the while - over the mountains and into Dingle. It was a beautiful drive, and plenty narrow. We reluctantly decided to not go over Conor Pass, a legendarily narrow pass over the mountains in the center of the peninsula, because we chose to spend the day out on the beautiful western end of the peninsula.

Dingle's an interesting little town, very colorful, with a great harbor. It's thick with tourists by the waterfront, but it's not so bad up on main street where we stayed. The B&B we're in - Srain Eoin, which means "James Street" in Irish - is situated upstairs between two pubs. This is quaint, and the noise wasn't bad because everything closed at 11:30 PM (!), but since pubs are no nonsmoking, all the smokers gather out front...and it wafts up into our window. So most of the evening it was closed. The room is modern though the floor creaks a lot; what tells you we aren't just down the street is looking out the window in the morning and seeing an ancient, crumbling old stone chimney across the street behind a blue sky.

Blue sky, yes - despite dire predictions we've had terrific weather so far. It was rainy on and off in Limerick, but since coming to the west it's been sunny and great. Of course I managed to leave my sunglasses in the other car, so they're going to Nick's house and we'll meet up again near Dublin. I just have to remind myself I went for 40 years without them :).

So far we've been sleeping like the dead. Full days and generally quiet nights help. Of course so does a couple of pints at the pub :). Connor fits in just fine, kids of all ages are in there. We've been hitting the "trad" music scene as much as possible in the evenings. Our place is right down the street from the Little Bridge pub (I can't remember the Irish name), the best-known place for this music in town. It's a very friendly, unpretentious place, with parents and their kids, lots of locals (Sharon had a nice chat with a local lady who gave us pointers to different places in the country), and yet one fellow passed out on the bar. Connor watched with amusement as the friend bartender who'd been serving us drinks pulled the guy's head up by the ears so he could look into his face!

Our big expedition on Monday was to Great Blasket Island, about half a kilometer off the coast and the westernmost point in Europe. It's deserted now, but people lived there until the mid 50's. Thanks to our guide book we found a great ferry to GBI right from Dingle harbor (as opposed to driving out the very narrow roads again to Dunquin beach).

It was a great ride on an absolutely spotless day; the younger crewman on the boat said he'd never seen it so good. Our Limerick friends say it's been raining every day for two months! The water around GBI is blue and clear; the skipper said that basking sharks come in to feed on shrimp and plankton during the year, and seals are very common (though we didn't see any).

GBI is hilly, treeless, and carpeted with green grass many golf courses would be envious of. In fact, you could compare much of it to a giant fairway. A fairway with views that put Pebble Beach and St. Andrew's to shame. Steep cliffs, crashing waves, blue ocean, and sheep to keep it trimmed neat. On the south side of the island there are hilly rows scattered throughout; it took me a bit to realize these were the ubiquitous stone fences, only so overgrown with grass after 50 years there were almost unrecognizable.

It was a great day trip. We tried to make it to the top (most westerly point) of the island, but ran out of time before the ferry arrived.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Outbound, Limerick, Kinsale

We had a late, but uneventful flight to Shannon. Eastbound flights are singular Connor lost his earbuds, but we had backups. Nick & Rachel have a beautiful house out in the country outside of Limerick, along a country road that scared the hell out of us. It's just barely finished - they're still waiting for glass for the living room doors - but it's a true electronic cottage. In the odd corners of the house, like the laundry room and the garage (which serves as an office) there are fans and blinking lights everywhere.

Left-hand driving has been an experience: unsettling in unexpected ways. Adjusting a mirror on the left, to look in the opposite direction, a left hand shift, look to the right instead of the left at each intersection. What trips me up the most is the fact my instinct wants to position my body towards the far left of the lane (not just into the right lane as you'd expect) so I tend to run the mirror into the bushes. And Irish country lanes have bushes RIGHT up to the road, trimmed back only by the cars themselves. I'm okay in general, but my brain overloads when when it gets too much data, like approaching a five-way intersection, we need to hit the second lane to the left...which way do I look for traffic??? And Nick being a lousy, unsympathetic passenger :).

Saturday, we got up late due to the jet lag, and finally got out the door shortly before noon. We drove down to Kinsale, a resort town on the water a couple of hours south of Limerick via Cork. Since I'd gotten my left-hand driving feet wet on the way from the airport, we let Sharon get used to driving on the motorways to Cork. Unfortunately, in Mallow she ran over a curb at speed that leaped in front of her, and killed the left front tire. We put on the spare, and limped to Kinsale (<80>When we got home, Nick discovered problems with his high-tech wireless wall control lighting system - it was driving him mad. There are some times when a light switch should just be a light switch...
(Apologies in advance for typos caused by the various unfamiliar european keyboards)

In the evenings, we went for a coupla pints at the local pub in Murroe. Finally had some fresh Guiness from the tap, attracting some curious looks (it's not a big tourist spot so they rarely get Americans), and half-watched a bad Burt Reynolds cowboy movie playing overhead. He was the Indian, so it was distracting :). I did an informal Guiness taste test back at the house - the "tin Guiness" at home, at least from here in Ireland, tastes pretty damn close to the draft version.
Sunday morning - In a fit of brilliance this morning I managed to delete yesterday's Kinsale photos. Damn. Mostly of John's fort; it could have been worse. Oh, and Nick in a fit of (more) generousity loaned me his Canon EOS 350D digital SLR; I think I'm going to spend half the trip to Dingle figuring out how to use the durn thing :).

Off to Dingle!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Back in the saddle again

Well, it's only been nine months since I last posted! In the meantime I've started blogging for Intel, so I've kind of been keeping my hand in.

I'm right on the cusp of falling out of a very heavy work schedule, handing off everything current to my colleague, and heading to Ireland for a couple of week. I think it'll take me a week to decompress. Well maybe not; after a long plane ride and a couple of pints (at 7:45 AM when we arrive? Hey, it'll be just before closing time back home!) I'll feel better.

I'll try to post here as time, inclination, and internet access permits.