Dingle Day 1 - Adare to Tralee

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Our Irish friends and the tour guides all seem to agree that Adare is one of the prettiest, most picturesque villages in Ireland, so we made a point of stopping here for dinner and a little sight-seeing as we drove from Glenstal to our next destination - the Brandon Hotel in Tralee. Adare is a lovely town, though I thought the same of many Irish towns. Perhaps it’s the number of thatched roofs in Adare that makes it stand out. I read somewhere that while other towns were busy “upgrading” to slate roofs back in the early 1800s, the local landlord in Adare (the Earl of Dunraven, I believe) preferred to stick to the traditional thatch, which is apparently a lot more work to maintain properly. Here in Adare, I bought a Kodak disposable camera, so now I can attach some photos from our trip. (I also bought several postcards to hedge my bets, but can't share those with you here due to copyright issues.) The price of the disposable camera was ridiculously high by American standards - 13.99 Euro (about $18 US at the current exchange rate). The exact same camera costs less than $7 at home, but it never occurred to me to pack any, since I had never before had any trouble with my handy 35mm automatic. Oh well, live and learn.

Following the recommendation of our Frommer’s guide, we dined at The Blue Door. After an absolutely delicious meal, we got back in the car and headed for Tralee, where we checked in to the Brandon Hotel, a very nice 3-star hotel near the town center.

Let me just say here that this trip was completely unlike our previous vacation in Ireland, in that we had reservations every step of the way this time, and our destinations were, for the most part, selected by an Irish friend of ours who lives in the same town we do. The first time Tim and I came to Ireland, we had booked only our air travel and our rental car. We simply got in the car and drove, stopping anywhere along the way that looked interesting. It was a very liberating experience, not having to worry about being in a certain place at a designated time, and we had no trouble finding pleasant accommodations. It seems there are B & Bs in every town in Ireland; in fact, on our first trip, it seemed to us that even the tiniest town had at least one B & B and one pub. Meanwhile, back home in Lancaster, TX, a town with a population of 33,550, two lovely B & Bs have opened and closed during the 7 years we’ve lived here. If there are any others still in business, I’m not aware of them. And with our weird laws about alcohol sales, there’s no such thing as a pub here, just a couple of restaurants that are licensed to sell alcohol with your meal.

But I digress…

For more information about Adare, including some nice photos, visit the town's website at AdareVillage.com.

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Photos

Adare Town Park
Note the thatched roof on the gazebo-type structure at the end of the walkway. There was also a lovely little stream meandering through the park, but unfortunately, THAT photo didn't turn out very well.

Holy Trinity Catholic Church - Adare
This set of stained glass windows was one of my favorites on this trip.

Holy Trinity Catholic Church - Adare
This church was originally built as part of the Trinitarian Abbey, founded in 1279.