The morning in Dingle started off with the bestbreakfast we had yet...The Quayside B&B serves Dingle smoked salmon on a bagel, fresh fruit, porridge, yogurt and even Bailey's Irish Cream for your coffee as well as the full Irish breakfast.
Fortified, we headed out to take the drive out to Slea Head, the most westerly point of land in Europe.
This narrow, winding road takes you along some of the wildest coastline in Ireland and makes you gasp for air at just about every corner...not for the meek driver...there are some spots where there is only room for one small car held on the road by a rock wall which keeps you from tipping over down a 200 foot cliff into the ocean.
On the way there is an incredible museum dedicated to the famine victims who dwelled in these landlord owned cottages in the 1800's, many of whom lived and died in terrible conditions.
This area was one of the hardest hit and many people experienced some of the most horrific suffering, due to the remoteness of the place and one can only imagine how hard life was in the climate along the coast.
It is humbling and well worth a visit.
Oddly enough is the animal park within its rock walls, I suppose to showcase the native breeds of the area. The thatched roofs are amazing and detailed in ways that I didn't know was possible with thatch.
There are 'dummies' inside and out of the cottages, which lends an earie feeling to the place as well as scaring the bejesus out of unsuspecting tourists who come upon them!
Anyway, the drive was incredible with views out to
the jagged Skellings and wicked ocean below. The strange thing was that we were driving along trying
to figure out where the turnoff to Dingle was and thinking we had at least another hours drive back when things started to look familiar and all of a sudden realized we were indeed back in Dingle!
More strange magic on the road in Kerry.
Along the Ring of Kerry are so many gorgeous views to see and it reminded me of what my brother Dan had to say about Ireland.
We decided that our first Irish driving experience would NOT be renting a car from the Dublin airport and trying to find our way to Killarney from there….no, we took the safer way by hopping a train to Cork (a much smaller city) and renting one from the airport there. We picked up our car…smallest one on the lot…and headed out…The right hand drive thing was fine since I own a Delica van with right hand drive. The bizarre part was turning on to the road way and everything that had been habit was now in reverse and I actually had to THINK about it..thank god dad was there to confirm which lane I had to be in! The other thing is wrapping your head around those oh so wonderful roundabouts! Not too many traffic lights…just lots of roundabouts..Of course we got lost in the first one but brilliantly stayed on the proper side of the road…As my daughter says..”you haven’t lived until you go the wrong way in a roundabout”. So we arrived in Killarney in one piece and fell in love with this pretty Irish village.
…and ended up being entertained for hours by this guy..didn’t catch his name…but he could sing! And had everyone singing along too…the great thing about the Irish is no matter how young, old or cool you think you are, you will find everyone joining in on a good singalong…so much fun…after singer guy a young group of lads came on with the traditional instruments and sang some good Irish tunes…
