Limerick, Tralee, Dingle to Killarney: Sunday 24 July

It was nice not to have our bags out until 8am this morning. I slept quite well, in spite of a party raging somewhere nearby (possibly in the hotel) until 3:45am... We particularly liked our hotel room in Limerick - it was spacious, had a nice bathroom and good shower, and the air conditioning worked!

We had a short bus tour as we left Limerick, seeing King John's Castle and the Treaty Stone (related to the 1691 Jacobite rebellion). Limerick is on the River Shannon (the longest river in Ireland), and was established by the Vikings around 900 AD. 

  

We soon passed through the picturesque village of Adair, with its thatched cottages. Adair Manor Golf course looked beautiful, and there was even a castle nearby. More golf tour potential...

We had a stop at the town of Tralee (where the Rose of Tralee started) for refreshments and a restroom break, and went into a lovely little cafe with flowery plates and cups for coffee and a pot of tea (it turned out to be enormous). They had some amazing cakes on display, and I asked whether they had something GF - yes - I chose the recommended 'cookie' and was amazed at the huge plate-sized biscuit that arrived, with a dollop of cream beside it! It was delicious, and not too sugary. Then we walked along the street and into the lovely rose garden at the Tralee Town Park for a quick look.

Our next stop was Dingle, after driving through some amazing countryside. We had a lunch stop here, and David and I headed to the Strand Cafe for a nice lunch - a tuna melt for David (all his sandwich orders seem to be served with a handful of chippies, which we find a strange thing to do - the same happened in Dublin). I ordered a GF baked potato, which also arrived with chippies. I queried this because they were missing from all my sandwich orders in Dublin, and sure enough, they removed them. Nevertheless, I'd have to say that this was the best baked potato I've ever had! On our way back to the bus, we found one of our fellow passengers had fallen and thought she'd broken her arm. She was an elderly lady who was also keeping an eye on her husband. Michelle had ordered a taxi to take her and her husband the hour-long drive back to Tralee for an x-ray. Such a shame. Actually, David had a close shave himself, minutes earlier when he stepped off the footpath and lost his footing and almost rolled his ankle - it was a very close shave!

 

   

Off we went, travelling around the Dingle peninsula, also part of what is known as the 'Wild Atlantic Way' (a drive around the west coast of Ireland). Again, we had spectacular views and it was great to be on the left side of the bus and able to get some excellent photos through the windows and at some stops. The area was patterned with ancient rock walls and abandoned stone houses, many from the time of the potato famine. We even saw ancient stone beehive huts. There was rugged scenery with cliffs, but also beautiful sandy beaches, some of which were used in the filming of 'Ryan's Daughter'. The roads were incredibly narrow and our bus encountered many cars that had to back up and make room for us to get past. The weather held for most of the way around the peninsula, but then closed in quickly as we were viewing the islands off the coast: Skellig Michael and Little Skellig. The Blasket Islands were also offshore and represent the westernmost point of Europe.

We returned to Dingle where Michelle ushered us in to the famous 'Murphy's Icecream' shop and shouted us all two scoops each of our choice of flavours - delicious - they would even give Kapiti Icecream a run for their money! Then, off we went again, but this time to Killarney and our hotel, the lovely Killarney Plaza where we were to stay for two nights.

   

Dinner was early and an hour later at 6pm, so that we could have a quick getaway for a special Celtic Steps show in the evening. Dinner was spectacular and I enjoyed a shrimp cocktail and then beef spareribs in a lovely red wine sauce and with vegetables. We all struggled to find room for dessert from the buffet - in my case.... fruit salad and icecream.

Then we were off in the bus to the nearby Killarney Racecourse, that had a golf course in the centre and it all looked like a lovely place to attend the races. Michelle wanted us to be first there, in order to get the best seats in what was un-allocated seating. And we were first to arrive. However, another bus pulled in as we began to unload, and they were literally sprinting to the door that fast they got in ahead of us anyway. Michelle said she'd never seen anything like it! We still got great seats and I also had time to get some photographs of the racecourse.

  

The show started at 8:30pm and was a spectacle of the very best of Irish dancing - world champion dancers with the most incredibly quick footwork - beautiful singing, and a band of musicians on Irish drums, banjo and guitar, violin and piano. 

We were home again by 10:30pm, a late night after a great day. On the way back, Michelle had updated us on poor Rosita (with the injured arm) and Tomas - they had finally got back to the hotel, but would probably need to leave the tour because Rosita had two breaks in her arm, bad enough to probably need surgery. Michelle was going to meet with them to see what needed to be done to help them. Such a shame for two such lovely elderly folk.