This will be my last entry to my blog regarding my trip. On Tuesday morning, we had a wonderful breakfast at the Dernyaflan house. Shelia had her beautiful dining room set up for breakfast. She had fresh cheese that she made on her farm and some cheese that her neighbor made as well. We had yogurt, which was made on the farm, scones, homemade jam and preserves, pancakes (which were more like crepes) coffee, tea, fresh fruit, and then a full Irish breakfast of eggs, sausage, bacon, pudding, and toast. We ate breakfast with a Canadian family, who were the only other guests at the B&B. It was nice to talk to them during the meal and hear about Canada and their view on the United States. After breakfast, we took pictures with Shelia and played with the four farm dogs. I felt like I was one of Shelia’s grandchildren staying for a visit. On Tuesday we went to the Rock of Cashel, an old castle/church on a huge rock. We had a guided tour and learned a lot. Next we drove to Blarney,which is just outside of Cork City. The Blarney Castle houses the famous Blarney Stone. There is a popular legend about the stone, that if you kiss it you will be given the gift of eloquence. There are many stories about how this tradition and story came into play but I cannot remember all of the details. Anyways, in order to kiss the Blarney Stone, you must climb to the top of the castle through very narrow, winding stair cases. Once at the top, you must lie down on your back, while someone holds your legs. You lean back and kiss the stone while you dangle from the top story of the castle. Of course, as soon as I lay down on my back and was dangling over the ground, the man holding me over a huge drop made me wait for a few minutes while they got more film in the camera. You can purchase the pictures that they take of your for an ungodly price, or just have the pictures your family takes of you, which I will include below. After kissing the stone, we explored the castle and the grounds. We drove to Kenmare, where we stayed at the Rockcrest Bed and Breakfast. Kenmare is at the base of the Ring of Kerry, which we drove on Wednesday. The Ring is a famous driving route which provides some of the best scenery in Ireland. You drive through the mountains, around the coast, you can see the ocean and many cliffs and beaches. We had a picnic at a beach and enjoyed the nice weather. We came across some sheep on a mountain road and stopped to take pictures. The three sheep ending up running around the car and down the road. I have some funny pictures of the shaggy sheep running down the mountain road as we drove behind them. I’ll also include those below. We went to a pub for dinner where Joe from the show Ballykissed Angle was playing live music. This is a show that is on PBS and Anne and I used to watch it sometimes as teenagers. It was fun to see him in person. On Thursday we headed for Killarney, the other city which people stay in to drive the Ring of Kerry. Killarney was filled with tourists and we were a bit disappointed. Our bed and breakfast was not the best and our host was too busy to say more than “hello” to us. The one good thing to come out of Killarney was that I purchased my first Irish fisherman’s sweater from the Aran Sweater Market. I am so excited to have my very own authentic Irish sweater. On Friday it was raining, so we had to re think our plans of hiking through Killarney National Park. Dad ended up treating us to a jaunting car (horse and mini carriage)ride through the park to see the major sites. We saw the Muckross House (a huge mansion from the early 1900’s), the Abbey (which is in ruins), a beautiful waterfall and the three lakes. The National Park is one of the largest in Europe to this day and is surrounded by mountains and fog.. Everything was covered in moss and our driver, Patrick explained many of the different types of vegetation to us as we rode through the park. Dad really enjoyed learning about the different tress that are in the park. Patrick was a great guide and his horse’s name was Tommy Tucker. It was a great way to see the beautiful park. We left Killarney and drove up to our final destination of the week, the Dingle Peninsula. It rained the last three days of our trip, but the Peninsula was still breathtaking. There are mountains and cliffs and the weather caused a fog to settle over the peaks. We stayed at Ballymore House B&B and had the best time there. Our hosts were Les and Jenny. Les is a retired “copper” from London and Jenny loves to cook. She found out about Anne’s dietary needs and made her a homemade raspberry, cream, sponge cake that was gluten free. Dad and I we spoiled with Jenny’s hummingbird cake, which was like a carrot cake. We sat in their living room, which overlooked the sea. We talked with them, ate cake, and drank tea. We went to Murphy’s Pub for dinner and great live music. We were even more spoiled at breakfast. Jenny made gluten free pancakes, which were the best pancakes I have ever had. She had many types of bread, one gluten free type she made for Anne, and my favorite, the Irish soda bread made with Guinness. Jenny uses mostly organic food and free range eggs. She also made us omelets with smoked salmon and mushrooms. We all sat in the dining room and talked, and Les had music playing on a cd player with some Irish tunes. We ended up staying at the B&B until one o’clock, just drinking tea and talking with Les, Jenny, and their friend Sean. It was interesting to get a British couple’s perspective on the tension between Ireland and England.
Jenny packed us some gluten free cake for the road, and we were on our way back to Shannon. We were not able to go up Connor’s Pass (which provides a beautiful view of the peninsula) because of the dense fog, but we were able to stop at Murphy’s Ice Cream on the way out of town. Murphy’s is made right in Dingle with cream from the rare Kerry Cow. They have very unique flavors and they let us sample their Guinness ice cream, baileys, and run raisin. We had a three hour drive in the rain back to Shannon, where we sorted through our suitcases and packed up for the trip on Sunday morning. Before bed, Dad and I played cribbage and FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS SUMMER I WAS ABLE TO BEAT HIM!
Right now, I am sitting the in Chicago Airport, I have been here for three hours and still have almost two more hours to wait before boarding my last flight home. I can’t even begin to explain how thankful I am for all of the experiences I have encountered in the last six weeks of my life while in Ireland. I have learned so much about the Irish people and culture, as well as myself.
I have taken over 6000 pictures and there is no way I can post them on my blog. I may try to find a way to post them on a different website for those of you who wants to view more of my images. It will be a few weeks until I can get some editing done, but I will keep you all posted.
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