Day 3 - The Dingle Peninsula

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Evening at Sean Og’s
When we looked for the B&B’s we planned to stay at, we wanted to find a few that would allow us to be immersed in the Irish culture. Well, this was definitely the right place! In the evenings, they have live Irish music in the pub below our rooms. We went out for a traditional Irish meal, a few had Irish Stew, a few had the Seafood Chowder, I had chicken in pastry. Awesome food. We walked back to our B&B to enjoy the evening with the locals. Once the music started, hands were clapping and feet were stomping. Some old Irish men sang and a few broke out in dance. It was a great evening.
Day 3 - The Dingle Peninsula
We rented a van for the 8 of us to tour around South Eastern Ireland for the next 3 days, our driver is Batt. This first day was around the Dingle Peninsula. It was raining pretty much of the day but that kept the fog away so we could see the beautiful mountains and Atlantic Ocean to the east. Because we were in a van, we got to go over the pass and to smaller places that the larger bus tours couldn’t go. Thank goodness we had our driver, Batt, driving these roads. First, you drive on the left side and the roads are really narrow, sometimes a single lane for two lane traffic. Going over the pass we meet a few cars that had to back up the hill to a wide spot so we could pass. Also, the rocky cliffs would hang over the road some as you drive under. It was unreal. The views were awesome though. There were sheep everywhere. We made it down the pass to the port town of Dingle. We walked the shops, went to another church, had lunch and headed out for more site seeing. Batt took use to many terrific view spots and out-of-the-way ruins. One was an old fort over the cliffs of the ocean, Dunbeg Fort, dating to the Iron Age. Unbelievable how they built everything from stone. Another spot was the oldest church in Ireland, Gallarus Oratory, built in the 6th century. It’s totally made of stone and is very water resistant. It was used by the monks during that time. There were also these buildings called Beehive Huts that were much smaller in size but shaped like the church. They were used as homes during the famine.
We ended our trip in Killarney at Hussey’s, a quaint B&B off the main street. We walked the streets awhile but things close around 5:00pm so we all headed back to our rooms to relax for a while. There was a common room that we all ended up hanging out in, trying to do homework and updating our blogs. We walked to another local pub for great Irish music, food and fun. We finally called it a night.

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Photos

The Crew Enjoying The View
DeNise, Ted, Suzanne, Butch, Mike, Jim, Karol & Sandi

Thatched Roof House
Bog house with peat stacked along side.

Skellig Rocks
Ted & DeNise above Skellig Rocks