August 22nd. Dingle

Today we did a round around Dingle peninsula. It was a very enjoyable ride. First we stopped at Inch beach and spent several hours walking around a wide strip of low tide sand. There were lots of long shells of the type "sea maiden's nails. We even saw a few live crabs.

Then we went to Dingle marveling the views - purple mountains with bright green fields separated by dark green bushes, unusually blue sky and dark blue lakes. This area of Ireland is very busy with tourists, there were multiple buses, cars, and too many cyclers sharing a new narrow road. However the road quality is almost universally really good.

We walked around Dingle and had some Murphys ice-cream - the same one we had in Dublin almost 2 weeks ago. Next we went around the tip of the peninsula enjoying more views. Here there are a few more prehistoric sites.

They are shamelessly being charged for at every turn. One can see that the people selling the tickets could not care more about these sites and I am not even sure they are all authorized to do it. But what can you do? Once you are inside the loop that's all you do.

Another highlight was Connor's pass - horrifying one lane drive on the road along the mountain ridge.     The views, again, were incredible. We stopped at another beach and Georgia tried ice-cold water. There were too many vacationers to find any shells or shipwrecked gold - our new beach spoils target.

Then we got to another place with a waterfall and did something we did not expect ourselves to do - dragged the kids halfway up the mountain. As it was we were pretty high up. But there were lots of others walking up and taking pictures so we thought why not. And they did not have the common sense to complain. The climb was not very difficult though - mostly rocks and some mushy soil. We would have kept going but wanted to get to other sites.

The next stop was Killarney. We wanted to make a semi-circle around the scenic ring of Kerry today and this would be the starting point but e got here too late. So we found a hotel for the night - Murphy's guest house and went Ross castle some 6 km away in the park. Kids really wanted a ride on a horse drawn carriage but there were none at horsepark when we were leaving. Fortunately Dan asked passengers at one of the passing carriages to give us a lift and they agreed. Kids loved it. We walked back. Kids were absolutely not complaining but I was ready for a break :) and some food.


We found the only Thai place in town - Genting. And were disappointed. They did not even try to make the food look good. And pricing and service was not up to par either. Not like we walked oit hungry :) but fortunately we got some ginger cookies and baranki and fresh duona from a Polish sclep across. I wrote about it before, you can find at least one Polish food store in every decently sized town. Yesterday in Tralee there was a major warehouse one that rivaled the size of Costco. Globalization rocks!!

But now we are back in our room struggling to stay awake. It was a good day :) hoping to complete the loop tomorrow and get to Cork in the evening.

Forgot to mention, yesterday's hotel Manor West Hotel tried to masquarade as 4 stars but we could see it through past the brand new decor. However it had one great thing - awesomely maintained pools - child and adult with laps, little lagoons even.

Isabella took over the children's one and even was able to swim with with a board. When we are back we will have to get the kids signed up for the pool. Though Irina heard from other moms at the playground there is a waiting list. The local custom requires all to wear a swimming hat. So now we have 3 of them.