On the road in Ireland (Part 3)

Since the weather was going to be really good the next day, Sandra and I decided to bypass the Dingle Peninsula and head to the Ring of Kerry.  That's right, they have a whole place named after me!

On the way there, we stopped outside of Tralee to visit the Blennerville Windmill. 

It was built in 1800 and is Ireland's largest working mill.  We walked up the four flights of stairs to see all the gears.

Here is Sandra going down the very steep stairs trying not to hit her head.

The Ring of Kerry is basically a driving route around the Iveragh Peninsula.  When we reached the Ring of Kerry, my name was EVERYWHERE.  I was even more excited to find out they had Kerry ponies!   Here I am standing in front of a sign with my name on it (mulitple times).

We saw the Kerry Bog Village on the side of the road and decided to visit it.

It's a small village that had reconstructed cottages dating back to the 1800's which shows how life would have been back then.

The village has some animals in it.  Here are some very tired/bored Irish Wolfhounds.

The village was rather cute.  Each house had piles of peat outside and inside, some of the fireplaces were burning peat.  It was a lovely smell.

A photo from inside one of the cottages.

The underside of the roofs even were packed with peat.  They used the earth for everything. 

Some more peat bricks for the fireplace.

One of the cottages was set up as a stable.

They had these really funny fake animals inside.

The Kerry ponies were out playing so we did not see any, but I could buy one apparently.

Of course, I could not resist all the signs.  Sandra and I could not stop laughing over this one!

When we were done, we jumped in the car and headed to Portmagee for the evening.  The plan for the next day was to get on a boat and head to the world heritage site Skellig Michael.

Just wait until you see the next blog entry! You will be amazed.

On the road in Ireland (Part 2)

On our second full day, we headed to the Burren.  It is a vast limestone plateau that has some moonlike qualities.  It is a very desolate place with little vegetation at this time of the year.  The wind and grey skies added to the isolation of the place.

It was rather windy and cold.  Here I am getting blown away.

Here is Sandra near one of the hiking trail heads. 

According to my travel book, in the 1640's, a surveyor described the place as "a savage land, yielding neither water enough to drown a man, nor tree to hang him, nor soil enough to bury". I wonder what was on his mind when he wrote the quote!

We drove through the Burren to explore the area.  We found some other tourists along the way.

I love this look the cow gives me when we try to pass by.

In the Burren, we visited the Poulnabrone Dolmen.  It is a tomb dating to 2000-2500 BC!  They have excavated it and found remains of over 30 people inside.

From there, we stopped at the Coherconnell Stone Fort which dates to around 900-1000 AD.  It is a very large circle made of stone about 10 feet thick.  This is the entrance into the Fort.

The Fort was not in very good condition and the walls were falling down.

From there, we set off to the Cliffs of Moher.  We just happen to drive by this old house on our way.

We stopped in a little town for a nice lunch.  I thought it was funny to see this tractor parked.

After lunch, we visited the Cliffs of Moher.

The cliffs rise up over 650 feet out of the sea and extend about 5 miles along the Irish coast.

Another windy photo!

It was really beautiful.

This is looking in the other direction at the old tourist center.

I loved this sign. According to someone at work who is Irish, the area did not have trails for many years and people would fall to their death on a regular basis.

Self portrait with Sandra.

From there, we headed south.  Sandra said it was funny how I could spot wind turbines from miles away.  We saw many on our trip.

That night, we stayed in a cute town called Kilrush.  This is photo of our room.

It is located on water and had a small harbour.

The next morning we headed to Killimer to catch the car ferry.  The only problem...Kerry read the timings wrong and here is the ferry leaving...without us on it!  We had to wait an hour for it to come back.

Here we are loading up.

Our little blue car leading the way.

Pushing back from the dock.

A crow hitching a ride.  The crows were everywhere in Ireland.

On the ferry there was also a horse hitching a ride. Kinda funny.

After we left the ferry, we drove past the Aghavallen church.  Sandra wanted to look at some old churches so we investigated.  It was built in 1402 and went out of use in 1858.  The graveyard is still being used.

Inside the church.  What I found interesting was all the tombstones inside the church. 

From there, we drove to Carrigafoyle Castle, built in the 15th century.

The ruins sit on a estuary.

In case you haven't figured out, this country is extremely small!  From there we drove to the Ardfert Cathedral ruins.  It is a complex of churches built in the 12th century.

It was pretty big on the inside.

The window arches were still in place.

You can tell we had very busy days.  More to follow......