Dublin again

Starting the day off with Susan our B&B host really set the tone for the day. Her personality and flair for life just kept us on our toes laughing! Well we ate breakfast her dog George set watch over us although I think his intentions were purely in hopes of table scraps… LOL! She told us how humble and laid-back dogs were in Doolin. When I told her about my Rack Russells back home she said "oh God no, not those vicious little feckers...lol!" Our journey from Doolin to Dublin seemed like a long one. Even though the scenes weren't as majestic as the coastal views, the displacement of ruined castles along the route made it worthwhile! We made a couple of stops along the way and one was the castle of Bunratty. Even though we stopped we forewent going in because they turned it into a tourist trap and the fair was more than we wanted to pay. So, we went across the street and enjoy the nice cup of latte! Besides all that we were hoping to get back to Dublin time to see the Kilmainham Gaol which is an old turn-of-the-century jail open for tourism. Unfortunately they close before we reached Dublin. However, Danny booked us a night in the Clontarf Castle Hotel which was a partially restored castle converted into a hotel. After booking in we all went down to a local pub for one last night out on the town Dublin.

Doolin

Man, I love these Irish breakfasts at the B&Bs! This morning was scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and fresh baked soda bread. Danny scored big by getting some soda bread for the road! First on our agenda this morning was the 26 mile coastal route of the Dingle Peninsula. Most of the scenic stops were of eighth and ninth century ruins. We hit all of the main stops and even some that were off the beaten path. From there most of us slept during the long drive to Doolin. At one point we even boarded a ferry to shorten our drive. I wouldn't say the ferry was necessarily a welcome break since the splendor of the views never wore their welcome. Although the views today seemed more breathtaking than the previous day's only because of the lack of fog and cloud cover. Our last stop before Doolin was the cliffs of Moher. "pronounced more because as the travel guide said who would want to visit the cliffs of less" The ladies that welcomed us at our B&B in Doolin were extremely charismatic! They were a mother-daughter duo that were nothing short hysterical! We finished off the night at a local pub called O'Connors with fish and chips. The awesome thing about this B&B was the view no less than hundred yards outside my window of what remained of a castle ruin!

Dingle

This morning's breakfast was off the chart! We all had chocolate chip French toast with some type of raspberry compote on top. It was totally legit! Today's agenda was the Ring of Kerry. The Ring of Kerry is 120 miles of a scenic coastal route through the county of Kerry. It had the most megalithic views ever "yes I stole that word from Rick Steves travel book and you can thank Wikipedia for a definition later...lol!" The route was full of coastal views, mountains, ruins, and beautiful landscapes that you would ideally think Ireland worthy of. We stopped along the route at a small town called Sneem. "it sounds like the name of something you would hear in a Dr. Seuss book" In Sneem we found a little dainty coffee café where we snacked on croissants, cheese, and sipped on coffee. It was quite relaxing! The man at the counter however was not exactly what I would call pleasant. His disposition and look reminded us of the old man character in the movie up. I was quite tempted to ask him how Kevin was doing...lol! From there we traveled on stopping quite frequently for Claire to get her perfect photo of an Irish sheep… LOL! Besides the numerous landscape photos that we took. And yes by this point in the trip we were all talking in our best Irish accents! By the time we reached Dingle we were all a bit on the hungry side but the restaurant that Danny had chosen for the evening required us to make reservations, so we had about a 2 1/2 hour wait. To kill time we all headed down to a local pub for live Irish music. The pub was packed with tourists but the music was good! We capped off dinner at a seafood restaurant called Out of the Blue which was highly recommended by Rick Steves and then headed back to our B&B for the evening to call it a night.