We started out the day early today because we had a long drive ahead. We'd spent the night in the town of Tralee, the county seat for County Kerry. It was a beautiful hotel called the Meadowlands. We would be using that hotel as our base of operations for both the 14th and 15th. But onto the adventures of the 14th!
We left the hotel early to drive south to the Cliffs of Moher. However, first we had to drive through the Burren. The Burren is an area of south west Ireland with limestone hills that used to be covered in Scots Pine. However it was all chopped down during the industrial revolution and world wars. So the soil started to erode, which then left the limestone exposed. Fun fact, a chemical reaction is produced when limestone is exposed to rain water and it starts to dissolve. This has since resulted in caves and underground rivers being formed. It is a gorgeous rugged area full of cows and sheep and scenic views, but unfortunately humans had a devestating impact on the environment here.
Another fun fact, in order to get over the Burren, you have to drive up a series of tight switchbacks with very little between you and a sharp drop off. Pro-tip: this is not fun to experience in a coach bus.
After driving over the Burren, we finished our drive to the Cliffs of Moher. The cliffs are absolutely spectacular! Every picture and video you've ever seen cannot do it justice. The sapphire blue ocean crashing against the base of the cliffs. The sea birds swooping and calling to each other. The wind blowing the grass and wild flowers. And the buskers playing jaunty melodies on small hand accordians or Irish flutes.
I climbed up one of the long meandering paths to get pictures and then just sat for a while taking in the views. One moment that was really sweet was when a couple of German women nearby spotted a wooly caterpillar on the steps of the walking path. One of the women scooped it up with some leaves while the other blocked people from stepping on it. They got the caterpillar safely back into the tall grass.
After a while we got back on the bus and continued on to our next destination, Bunratty Castle in County Clare. Bunratty Castle has been semi restored and people can tour it. There's also an entire surrounding area where people can learn more of what life was like in the castle's heydays. The castle also hosts banquets nightly, and people can come to feast on turkey legs and roasted pig while being entertained by musicians. We did not stay for a banquet, but we did tour the castle. Megan and I climbed all the way up one of the towers to the roof battlements. It had some amazing views of the area, but the spiral staircase was tight and I definitely needed both hands on the railings to feel safe. There was also the problem of no traffic control on the stairs. People could go up and down them and you just had to hope that you didn't meet anyone!
There were three other towers that we could have climbed, but Megan and I decided to enjoy the castle from the outside. We headed out and walked through the village. By the time we finished it was getting towards mid-afternoon, so we headed back to the hotel where a group dinner was waiting for us. The night's dinner consisted of a choice of vegetable soup or Caesar salad, roast pork chop with veg or fish cakes with fries, and a strawberry mousse with coffee or tea for dessert.
We called an early night after that and Megan and I each spent some time calling home to check in on things.
August 15
Today's adventure started with a jaunt in Killarney National Park! A jaunt is actually a horse drawn carriage ride. Six of our group all piled into one of the carriages with a driver named Eric and a young horse named Blackie. Blackie was a rambunctious Irish Cobb only 4 years old who just wanted to go fast, and at one point, Eric let her get up to a canter to get some of the energy out. After that, we had a smoother ride. We saw lakes, castles, wide open fields, deer, rabbits, and scenic vistas that would fit beautifully in a nature documentary. Eric was a hilarious guide and pointed out beautiful scenery and historic places in between cracking jokes. He even gave us a good recommendation for lunch in Dingle (our next stop of the day).
After we said goodbye to Eric and Blackie, we met back up on the bus to continue our journey. We were headed north a little and further west out onto the Dingle Peninsula! The town of Dingle is a cute little town on the coast. It's a pretty popular tourist destination and has some great fish and chips and ice cream! The fish is caught fresh from the Atlantic and served up within a day of being caught. I tried the smoked haddock this time and it was so rich and just melted in my mouth! The ice cream we had after was a famous place in Dingle, Murphy's. It has flavors like sea salt, gin, chocolate whiskey, Irish brown bread, and honeycomb caramel. I had a double scoop, one of sea salt and the other Irish brown bread (the bread crumbs are caramelized). It was delicious! We had some time then to walk around and explore the plethora of shops before boarding the bus again.
Our next adventure was driving along the coast, following the Wild Atlantic Way. The roads were narrow and there were some pretty steep drops in places, but the view was spectacular! There were quite a few places where tourists had gathered because the Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi did a lot of filming in this area. (All the scenes on the island Luke Skywalker secludes himself on, for anyone interested.)
Along the way, we made a stop at the Gallarus Oratory. The Gallarus Oratory is a sandstone structure of unknown age (but believes to be over 1,000 years old) that was thought to be an early Christian church or pilgrimage site. Nobody knows for sure, but it is confirmed as being original and never having been restored.
This was our last official stop for the day and we then headed back to the hotel. However there was an extra excursion that Megan and I went on. We went with 14 others of our group to see Celtic Step, an Irish music and dance group. It was a lot of fun! Two members of the dancers were world Irish dance champions and it really showed!
The show ended around 10pm and we headed back to the hotel to pack. We needed to head out for our next stop in the morning!
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