Monday - Kenmare

We drove from Dingle to Killarney (a tourist center full of tour buses and souvenir shops, making us thankful we didn't book rooms there) and out the other side, through Killarney National Park (I probably don't have the name right). Nonetheless, it's a beautiful drive.

It's also a very narrow drive, with a very twisty turny road about 2/3rds the size of a Plano subdivision road to accomodate two cars passing, or if you aren't lucky, a car and a massive tour bus passing. We timed it to avoid this on almost all of our time on Dingle and Iveraugh peninsula roads, so it was an enjoyable drive though the park and down into Kenmare.

We chose Kenmare on the Rick Steves' Ireland recommendation, and he was right. It's a nice little town, a bit more touristy than Dingle but also a bit more modern in subtle ways. We stayed at O'Donobhain's, a B&B above O'Donobhain's bar and restaurant...how convenient!

Staying at city B&Bs is interesting. There's a little door next to the bar/restaurant entrance, and the residences are generally on the floors above. Srain Eoin in Dingle had the basics, while here in Kenmare O'Donnabhain's has a little more of an established big(ger) city feel to it. The B&B has a second toor to the outside which is locked at night for security purposes. Since they only give you one key, this can lead to logistical problems. I stayed late to hear the accordion player and found myself locked out of the place! Fortunately two guys were going in, and I convinced them I was a good guy by showing them I was a cyclist like them.

I managed to leave my €24 phone card in the public telephone the next morning, not being used to phone cards, but was able to confirm a lucky reservation to Skellig Michael that morning.