Ireland 2012 Friendship Force

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Day 5 - Della H. & Joan S.

Killarney St. Patrick’s Day parade, jaunting cars, crusing Lock Leane..



St. Patrick’s Day started before midnight for our group as sounds of the Irish music we had heard in the hotel bar reverberated through our psyche - or was that the real thing? And with the sound of teenagers all around did anyone sleep before 2 AM?

We met the Jaunting Cars for a ride to Ross Castle. Most of our group boarded an enclosed warm boat to tour Lock Leane, which means Lake of Learning. The narration from the boat captain was quite interesting and answered many questions. Much of the Lake is only a couple of meters deep and appears very dark because of the peat moss. There are 26 islands, the largest of which is 26 acres and has the ruins of a 4^th century castle. The smallest is called Mouse.

Michael, our jaunting cart driver, answered many of our questions. Penny walls, the stone walls lining some streets, were built in the 1830s. Workers were paid a penny a day. He also told us Killarney has a bed capacity of 35,000 and a population of 10,000 to 12,000. Killarney is definitely a tourist city.

Thankfully it didn’t start to rain until our open cart ride ended. It was quite wet though for much of their St. Patrick’s Day parade. We think many of our group chose other activities during the parade. Shopping was the choice of many of the rest of our group.

Editors Note – The hotel Killarney Towers was very nice even if some of us referred to it as Faulty Towers.

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