We had a lovely breakfast and somehow managed to all get ready despite the nonfunctional toilet. Since I also discovered that the shower was not working, it was a quick wash, breakfast, and then off we went.
First we drove about half the Dingle Peninsula, and stopped at the tiny town of Anascaul, where Tom Crean was from, the famous Antarctica explorer. We got some beautiful Antarctica stamps for our postcards, and saw his statue there. We saw lots of sheep and baby lambs which were adorable, along with some lovely beaches on the water.
Then on to Kilkenny and the entrance to the national park, which was quite crowded initially. Then we stopped at a small parking area and took about a 10-minute walk to the beautiful ruins of Mucross Abbey. Surrounded by gravestones, I could almost feel the presence of the hundreds of monks who lived there, especially when we walked through the small, nearly complete cloister. We continued on to drive the far eastern part of the Ring of Kerry, and had a nice stop at the Ladies View, a beautiful overlook sighting down the valley to the lakes below. We had a light lunch of a goat cheese tomato tart that we shared, and took lots of photos. We brought a few half-liters of Bulmers, a hard cider, and before I knew it the woman at the counter had opened them while we meant to bring them with us. She quickly resealed them and we had them that evening.
En route to Bantry, we stop at the Maggie Gallivan store Andrea room, which was the home of a widow with 7 children, who of necessity made moonshine to supplement her tiny farm, and eventually opened a nice rest stop. The remains of her farm still exist, and a cow,donkey, pig, chickens, and ducks were still on the farm. I found a lovely brown sheepskin for a Marley, which I hope he will like to sleep on … we’ll see.
The rest of the afternoon was a fairly leisurely drive to Bantry, a small town which had many colorfully-painted houses. The place we stayed at had various sports facilities and was quite modern, and most importantly, had a working toilet and a very nice shower. We had a decent dinner, though they seemed to fry almost everything, and chips do seem to come with virtually every main dish even if it also has pasta or potatoes. Claudia and I stayed up late talking about so many things, which was really wonderful, so much nicer to talk in person than just on the phone or on zoom.
Up early tomorrow for a very busy day we have planned.
No comments:
Post a Comment