Day 16 – Home!

After a long uneventful flight we made it back to the awesome USA!

My bed – and especially my own pillow – felt awesome.  Trip complete.

Day 15 – Back to London, Duvets Suck

We flew back to London today and fly to the USA tomorrow.

I was able to completely use up – including coins!!! – all the GBP I had on me which feels great as there’s nothing useful to do with another countries’ currency when back at home on another currency.

Since we’re back in London for the night we’re back to using duvets on the bed. Duvets are absolutely miserable. They’re too hot and they’re too short. (I imagine they’re a PITA for cleaning staff who have to un-stuff and stuff them daily.) I usually pull the inside part out and use the duvet cover as a sheet, then get an extra duvet cover (so my feet can be covered during the night), then finally throw the inside part of the duvet on my feet and slowly pull it up during the night as my body temperature cools. Anyway.

We’re now just sitting around waiting for the hours to pass until being home!

Day 14 – Ardfert Cathedral, Ballyheige Beach, Rattoo Round Tower, Ballybunnion Castle, Carrigafoyle Castle, Listowel Castle, Listowel Castle

Very windy and a lot of the places were under construction or inaccessible so it felt like a day of strikeouts:

1. Ardfert Cathedral: super windy and under construction.
2. Ballyheige Beach: super windy; tried to get shots of waves crashing against a huge distant rock out in the ocean.
3. Rattoo Round Tower: under construction and could not enter.
4. Ballybunnion Castle: even more super windy; the wind howled as we ate cheese sandwiches in the car.
5. Carrigafoyle Castle: windy to the point of hindering walking and we could not enter (only open June – September).
6. Listowel Castle: windy and entry was via tour.

We did have a nice walk around Killarney towards the end of the day which was nice for stretching the legs after the driving.

Ardfert Cathedral

Rattoo Round Tower

Ballybunnion Castle

Carrigafoyle Castle

Listowel Castle

Day 13 – Beara Peninsula, Cyclists, Kenmare Stone Circle

It was very rainy and windy so we didn’t get out of the car much on the Beara Peninsula. The drive around the peninsula is supposed to be similar to Slea Head drive and the Ring of Kerry but not quite as good. The Beara Peninsula is touted as the 3rd choice of peninsula drive to do behind Slea Head and the Ring of Kerry and since we have the time we thought we might as well go for it.

It was basically a rainy windy drive around a peninsula. There were a few scenic overlooks where the weather was nice enough for us to get out and get some decent pictures but it wasn’t nearly on par with the Ring of Kerry or Slea Head drive.

We did have a cool moment at the end of the peninsula drive right before starting back to Kenmare: we approached a left turn and were forced to stop and wait for a few minutes while a hundred or so cyclists went flying by with their police escort and team cars loaded with bikes and supplies trailing close behind. It was like a mini-Tour de France passing by right in front of us.

We did stop in Kenmare on the way to the Beara Peninsula for some more chocolate muffins, though, and mine was delicious! The mocha I got was also pretty good (compared to other mocha’s purchased here and in the UK) but sadly I haven’t found anything that matches the taste of a Starbuck’s mocha (no whip, no foam); it’s probably due to Starbuck’s using a ton of sugar whereas places and food here are sugar-lite. (Things are a lot less sweet here than in the USA.)

After completing the Beara Peninsula we came back through Kenmare and hit up the Kenmare Stone Circle which was a decent (and close!) stone circle. It was still raining off and on so we headed back to Killarney.

Neat Colored Houses in Eyeries

View from Beara Peninsula

Cyclists

Cyclists

Kenmare Stone Circle

Day 12 – St. Mary’s Cathedral, Torc Waterfall, Moll’s Gap, Kenmare, Ladies’ View, Muckross House & Gardens, Ross Castle

Day 12 – St. Mary’s Cathedral, Torc Waterfall, Moll’s Gap, Kenmare, Ladies’ View, Muckross House & Gardens, Ross Castle

We started out early wandering around Killarney hoping to get coffee and some sort of sweet treats! We struck out on the sweet treats since nothing seemed to be open at 8:30 when we were wandering the streets… so we made our way to St. Mary’s Cathedral instead. It’s a more modern cathedral, so it looks new-ish inside, but still looks pretty cool overall.

By this time it was past 9 AM so we were able to find some coffee shops that were just now opening and managed to come away with some semi-ok mocha’s. They weren’t anything special but they were warm as it had started to sprinkle. I also got an eclair; it was just okay.

After a quick re-group at the townhouse we were out on the road heading towards Kenmare. Our first stop along the way was Torc Waterfall. It rained slightly but we still got some cool shots. I brought the tripod this time so we could get a steady shot of all of us in front of the waterfall as last time the pictures all turned out pretty bad. We also declined a jaunting car trip at this stop.

The next place along the way was Moll’s Gap which is a scenic overlook of some skinny roads you have to come up to get to Kenmare. It was good for a bathroom stop.

We made our way in to Kenmare and were off to find some pastries that we had gotten last time we were here. We were searching for a shortbread cookie with chocolate on the end but instead wound up with the best chocolate muffin ever. I devoured it. (We got a second one, later, of which I also devoured in a chocolate frenzy ignoring my pregnant wife who also wanted some. Big OOPS!) We had lunch in a pub type place (and I also got a Guinness) then we wandered around Kenmare a bit more. It was cool to walk past our previous B&B and several pubs I had had a Guinness in 1.5 years before. After that we were back on the road headed back toward Killarney.

We pulled off at a scenic overlook near Ladies’ View for some quick pics and were back on our way. Next up was Muckross House & Gardens.

The gardens are quite large and extensive and very relaxing to walk around. We spent a good amount of time here and walked about a mile and a half in total. We also tried to recreate a picture of me jumping off a wall with limited success.

I then wanted to head back to the townhouse to then walk through Killarney National Park to get to Ross Castle but somehow we got on the subject of Ross Castle and the mentioning of a road to Ross Castle – instead of walking 2+ miles through the park – won out.

Ross Castle is similar in shape and style to castles we have seen in the past such as: Newtown Castle, Dysert O Dea Castle, Aughnanure Castle, but the only way to view the inside or Ross Castle is through a paid guided tour (and pictures are not allowed). On our previous trip we skipped the tour but this time I decided to go it alone while Amber and Kathy walked around the grounds and then eventually waited in the car. I think I like castles slightly more ruined and without any furniture or decoration; there’s something about the raw stone braving the elements for ages that appeals to me.

We finished the day off at the townhouse eating some leftover spaghetti and catching up on blogs, email, and Facebook.

St. Mary’s Cathedral

Torc Waterfall

Moll’s Gap

Truer Words Could Not Be Spoken

Ladies’ View

Muckross House

View from Muckross House

Ross Castle

Day 11 – Poulnabrone Megalithic Tomb, Newtown Castle, Caherconnell Stone Fort, Dysert O Dea Castle, Clare Abbey

We had a long day planned with the main agenda item being Poulnabrone Megalithic Tomb (as we had missed it 1.5 years ago in our previous Ireland visit). After that we planned to hit any targets of opportunity that presented themselves. It was also REALLY windy (Gale Force 8: 39-46 mph winds) all day long and we rushed a bit at any outdoor site because of this.

Poulnabrone Megalithic Tomb is out in the Burren which is a “10 square mile limestone plateau” (Rick Steves) and “a Cromwellian surveyor of the 1650s described it as ‘a savage land, yielding water enough to drown a man, nor a tree to hang him, nor soil enough to bury him.'” (Rick Steves) Needless to say we were tossed around by the wind a bit when viewing Poulnabrone and couldn’t enjoy the neat limestone rocks very much. It would have been cool to walk around a bit more exploring the cracks between the rocks and the weird vegetation that survives out there.

Targets of opportunity:

1.  Newtown Castle. It said it was closed for a wedding on the door but I went in anyway. 🙂
2. Caherconnell Stone Fort. Meh, just another stone fort. Had a Bailey’s Cheesecake thing though in the cafe…
3. Ventured off for a cairn but couldn’t find it; mission aborted.
4. Dysert O Dea Castle. Kathy and I went in. Same style as Newtown Castle and there are apparently tons of castles like this in this area: rectangular, skinny, tall, one way in, spiral staircase in one corner at the entrance, all rooms off of said staircase, and sometimes multiple rooms per floor.
5. Clare Abbey. This one had a gate but there weren’t signs saying one couldn’t enter so we entered. Cool ruined church; today it seems to function as a burial ground as there are many headstones and graves inside it. I also backed down a narrow road like a boss to get out of this place.
6. Some castle on a golf course but no way to access it; mission aborted.

Back at home we had the best mexican dinner to date here in Ireland (and in the UK) but that was due to the fact that we gathered our own ingredients and made tacos at the house – they were delicious!

Inside Clare Abbey

Poulnabrone Megalithic Tomb

Newtown Castle

Burial chamber at Caherconnell Stone Fort

Dysert O Dea Castle

Day 10 – Dingle Peninsula, Slea Head Drive

We had a late start to the morning but the timing of the drive and everything put us past the morning rain once we arrived at our first destination.

Our first stop was a beach in Inch. It was a bit windy and crowded but the beach views were great. (It was saddening to see a dead dolphin washed up in the sand with multiple holes in him like he was shot several times or something.) I did climb up to a cool rock shelf for some more pictures and after buying some fruit (and a can of Pringles @ ~$4.50 (!!!)) at a local shop we were off again.

On our way to Dingle we took the ‘road less travelled’ and ran into an Irish gentleman who explained a bit about the area, a local well, and a castle we were standing next to.  He also blessed us before driving off.

Next it was lunch time in a parking lot in Dingle. We ate in the car staring out into the bay. After that we started on the superb Slea Head drive.

There are lots of pull-offs and picturesque spots along the drive and we stopped at several, just like we had done 1.5 years ago when doing the Slea Head drive previously. There’s a specific spot you see often in photographs taken out on a point that looks back at two beaches and I made sure to get a panorama from that spot.

We were then off to the Gallarus Oratory with a side detour allegedly leading to a castle that we couldn’t find. Gallarus had more people than on our previous trip but we were still able to get pictures of the rock church itself w/o anyone else in it… but it was tedious for a bit. It certainly wasn’t as awesome as the previous trip where we had the entire place to ourselves but it was still good.

We headed back towards the townhouse we’re staying in in Killarney, got stuff for dinner, and ate dinner at the townhouse. There was some kind of game going on – rugby? soccer? hurling? – but I managed to squeeze into a semi-empty pub for a pint before the night ended. Amber made spaghetti and it was quite good! The italian you get out in restaurants here is usually pretty bad (compared to the States, anyway) so it was nice to have a good italian meal here. The garlic bread was great, too!

Beach at Inch

Min Aird Castle

Holy Well near Min Aird Castle

Random Beach

Random Beach

Random Beach

Random Beach

Gallarus Oratory

Inside Gallarus Oratory

Day 09 – Drive to Heathrow, Fly to Ireland

Long drive to Heathrow followed by a flight to Cork, Ireland then some awesome driving in Ireland to Killarney!  It was a bit of a chore to find the townhouse as it was tucked away off a one way street in town but we had an awesome dinner that made up for it.  I had Guinness Stew with a pint of Guinness.  I love Ireland.

Day 08 – Salisbury Cathedral, Old Sarum

After a brief nap after our early Stonehenge excursion, we headed off to the nearby town of Salisbury. We checked out some local shops, the cathedral, and had some lunch. The cathedral has this cool black fountain thing that lets you view the ceiling of the cathedral via reflection. A guide chatted us up while we stood around the fountain taking photos.

Next we were off to Old Sarum for some pictures and walking. We didn’t go inside last time but I did this time to check out some of the ruins. I expected a bit more for the price but it was still a nice day and I got my fill of vitamin D.

On our way back to the hotel we saw a sign that had the word “castle” in the name but, after driving for a while, turned out to be a town. We think.

Salisbury Cathedral

Inside Salisbury Cathedral

Fountain reflection shot from Salisbury Cathedral

Shot from inside Old Sarum

Day 08 – Stonehenge

We woke up super early (4:20 AM) to get to Stonehenge at sunrise for our ‘inner circle access’ thing.  The ‘inner circle access’ thing is where you pay extra to get to go in and around the stones for an hour.  Our slot was awesome, right in the middle of sunrise.  Last year we did the sunset one and it was just as good.