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.
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.
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