Blogs from Portmagee, County Kerry, Ireland, Europe

One shinning day in July 2022 Bird and HP hopped abord a boat for a one hour ride to Skellig Michael that mystic home of ancient monks and puffins. Monks arrived at Michael during the sixth century, not long after the remnants of the Western Roman Empire were extinguished. They scratched out a meager existence until the early 12th century, eventually being driven ashore where another monastery was established boasting only meager remains. But Michael's are impressive, and all are at least one thousand years old, Landing upon the island apparently can be something of an acrobatic act with our guidebook likening it to "jumping off a trampoline onto an ice ring". In fact boat captains report they are able to affect successful landings on only five days per week, which created no small amount of ... read more

Tuesday morning we drove to the Killarny National Park in Southern Ireland where we did a bike ride around one of the lakes. Oh my, it was beautiful. The ride had slight hills and we stopped a lot to have the local wildlife explained to us, to walk thru a cave (and Yes, Shelly did it) and to see the sights. BTW, we are in County Kerry (Keri) and if we went on the longer trip we would go to County Claire. So after today I now know why there is Irish green. Everything here is green and I mean, green, 100’s of shades of green. Then it did the typical weather, rain some, sun some, rain some while the sun is out. – lots of rainbows. Then there is the “Ireland” you see. Rock walls ... read more

After such an eventful day I woke excited about the potential to meet Nora and family. The phone rang in the morning and the lady on the other end asked if I was the granddaughter of Catherine and I just was beside myself. So we set a date to meet at her house later in the day. In the meantime we had a bit of exploring to do. We also had some laundry to do. In Portmagee next to the community center is a bunch of ladies who will do your laundry for you. Even the locals bring in their washed clothes for a dry when it is too wet out. So we took our things in and got them sorted out. Then we decided to do a drive around the Iveragh Peninsula so we set ... read more