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Excellent service
One of the two boats that shuttle back and forth. If you aren't keen on barnyard smells then you might be put off by the level of eau de manure in the air. We have discovered that it is ever present and varies from whiffs to all out permeated air. It doesn't bother us but it might for someone that isn't used to it. The area we stayed in is called The Shannon Country and it is cow country; it is mostly dairy cows and some beef on the hoof. We've seen little sheep in this area.
The majority of the dairy operations we saw are small herds. The cows are moved from field to field to conserve grass; sometimes they are moved down the roads. Naturally something has to been with the manure that piles up in the dairy so tractors hauling wagonloads go out an spray it out on the fields and that is when it is sometimes overpoweringly “fresh.”
This means that if you are going to be doing your own driving, then you will also be contending with tractors. They are on the roads quite a bit of the time. You either have to contend with getting behind them or making way for them on the narrow
Brrrrr
I needed a this layer to stay warm. lanes. Everyone seems to have evolved into an accommodating understanding of giving way or maneuvering around each other.
Our objective this day was to visit Dingle. We got up late...yet again. We headed off to the Dingle Peninsula at the crack of 11AM. One needs to cross over to that peninsula via the Killimer ferry. It is only a 20 minute ride across the water and there are two ferries that shuttle back and forth. Even so, it takes a bit of time when the loading and unloading, and waiting for one to show up is all taken into account. The ride over was quite cool...temperature wise...we needed to wear an extra layer to stay warm if we were going to ride up on top.
We stopped in Tralee as I was in starving mode. A very kind woman directed us to a restaurant but we decided to stop in at a Chinese place(facing the entrance lane to the cathederal it is on the right). Woohoo...it was fabulous. It is the best Chinese food we've eaten in a long time. I ordered some chicken dish with Szechuan sauce. Oh yeah, I had a nice sweat going. It was very tasty.
Facing the breeze
The ferry isn't exactly zooming along but combined with the wind it can be quite a breeze. I told the waitress that it was pleasantly hot and she said that they could have made it hotter. Beth had a dish that was also tasty although minus the heat.
You know what Ireland needs? Tabasco! Even the salt and pepper are weak. I am not kidding. The salt and pepper have been ground down to almost powdery uselessness. They need Tabasco in a serious way.
After the fab lunch things went downhill. There are two roads to get to Dingle. The one I wanted to take was closed. And we got stuck behind a slow moving truck all the way to Dingle. It is a two lane winding road and there was a car that wouldn't pass the truck so that the rest of us could hopscotch one at a time. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. It took an eternity to get to Dingle.
The most interesting thing we saw was a convent. We toured the grounds and the chapel. The convent has its own cemetery and one of the things that captured our attention was that a lot of the names on the markers began with a male name. We think that those were saints names and that there are more
Final resting place
Tucked away in a peaceful little corner. males than female saints hence the use of male names...this is just speculation on our part. I liked that a huge oak shaded the little plot; a sort of symbolic protection against the elements. We were also impressed by the chapel. It is very ornate...very Italian, which is in contrast to the simple austerity that we've seen otherwise. No photos allowed, but I did sneak in a flashless photo of some stained glass.
Dingle is a charming little bay village. It was overrun with tourists. We came, we saw, we walked around and then we left. That is it. The long drive behind the truck screwed up our timetable; we had to be sure to get back to the last ferry crossing. Fortunately the drive back was very fast as we had no traffic in front of us. We stopped in the little village of Trabert located just before the ferry point. We had a very average meal.
A reminder to readers about tourist stats: 90% of travelers end up in well known spots that are only 10% of what could be visited. Tourist hordes have a way of diminishing the appeal of any place regardless of how charming it
Hermitage
This is located on the grounds of convent. This was a place for some "alone" time. People could attach ribbons to ask the nuns to pray for someone or something. may be. In short, we were disappointed with that outing. This is one of the reasons we had wanted to take an alternate route and kinda skip Dingle. There was only thing left to do to save the day, so upon our return to Cooraclare we headed next door to O'Keeffe's. The regulars were there and we started in on a pint.
O'Keeffe's only serves Guinness on tap so there is no question of what you get when you order a pint. We did learn that the Guinness in Ireland has active yeast and will keep in the keg for 9 months to a year. When Guinness is shipped to the USA the yeast is killed. The Guinness really does taste better and is not served as cold as it is in the USA.
We also learned that Ireland is in the midst of a dry summer after a very cold winter. It was also an extremely wet winter and they had flooding. This summer however is very dry and the locals were saying that the word “drought” has actually been uttered. The village water source is the local lake. Ann said that water rationing by July is possible.
We
Mystery mound
This is a modern new agey thing that has been recently added. One is to look into the peep hole...there are Japanese symbols...how about Gaelic symbols instead, it is Ireland after all. Dumb. said that there had been rain the first two days and that the weather was now really great. We said we couldn't believe how nice the weather was as we came prepared for wet conditions. One of the locals said, “Yes, we can't believe it either.”
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