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Day 35: Killarney
Yesterday at Muckross let us in for a fair bit of walking, so today was more just a long drive around part of the Beara Peninsula (the little one in the corner), another series of spectacular views punctuated by village strolls. Today’s view highlight was Healy Pass, which surprises you by providing an absolute stunner then another one a few hundred metres on, just when you think you’re past it. Glengariff is an attractive and relatively untouristy village with a cemetery almost in the middle of town.
A mid-afternoon return gave us time to catch up on communications, including this diary, and research a really good place to eat for our last night in Killarney. The restaurant we chose was closed when we turned up, but the haberdashery assistant there* told us of the Hotel Europe, a few kilometres out where the restaurant takes walk-up customers but doesn’t advertise the fact. It is an enormous and impressive complex, sublimely situated on Lough Lein, yet the excellent restaurant is not excessively priced at around A$28 for most mains. We had a marvellous meal, and lashed out wine-wise on a confident yet sensitive young Chablis from the coarser
gravel on the south-east slopes.
*Note: This needs explaining. Many Irish small businesses, especially in the countryside, have taken diversification to extremes. The restaurant was upstairs from the haberdashery – owned by the same brothers. Also in Killarney there is a combination electrical goods and bottle shop (see photo).
Day 36: Killarney-Waterford
We regretfully left what is a really good hotel (Earls Court House). We’ll especially miss the automated lift voice that announces in a flat Irish monotone “Groond floor … livvel won … livvel two”.
A driving day that presented us with a decision regarding what route to take. Should we go via the classic route from Killarney to historic Cork, there visiting the famous Blarney Castle and legendary Blarney Stone, then travel along the spectacular south coast road to Waterford? Or should we miss Cork altogether and take an extra hour to go inland via a series of increasingly narrow and inadequately signposted back roads to the sleepy village of Liscarroll and visit a donkey sanctuary?
…Correct.
The donkeys of Ireland (along with other
animals) have suffered greatly from neglect in the past, but the financial crisis really hit them hard, many being abandoned or ill-cared for when owners couldn’t afford to look after them. The farm we visited and another more extensive one nearby (where all the sick, injured and old ones are) presently have over 700 between them. We spent a fulfilling hour or so meeting what seemed to be nearly all of the resident critters and chatting to the staff and volunteer workers about donkeys, mules and horses.
Last stop was at the Waterford factory, where the food at the tea shop was expensive and mediocre. Only the first adjective applied to the adjacent glassware. We reluctantly passed over the chance to buy a large glass bear for A$40,000 and went for something a little more portable. Tonight we’re at the Granville Hotel, a nice old-fashioned place in a nineteenth-century house in a city with an historic feel about it.
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