Ring Around The Kerry
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We woke up for a “grand” breakfast. We spoke with a gentleman who was in town from Dublin for a wedding. He overheard me saying that we were in Ballyheigue to check out the sites for Casement and Monteith. He told me that there was a dog on that boat as well. The dog ended up at a restaurant or store in town and people bred a line from the dog. He bred some as well from the dogs he had. They are in the fourth generation of dogs in the line now. I told him that was interesting because I’m pretty much the fourth generation from Monteith as well, except that he was a step-greatgrandfather to me.
From Ballyheigue, we went to do the Ring of Kerry. From what we were told, that’s the one thing that every visitor to Ireland must do. The Ring is a road that takes you around a peninsula in the Atlantic Ocean and Dingle Bay. The views were absolutely spectacular. We stopped at one gift shop and there happened to be a professor from Memphis Thological Seminarary (which is right down thte street from our house). He is in Ireland for a one-year sabbatical. It was nice to meet him. We continued on the Ring of Kerry to a ferry which took us over to Valentia Island. It was a quaint area where monks once lived. There was a huge slate quarry there as well. We stopped at an old cemetery to take photos. This land was amazing!
We finally got around the Ring to Kenmare. This is a nice village with great shopping and pubs. They are known for their lace and linen. It took us awhile to find a B&B with vacancies. There was a triathalon and big golf tournament there this weekend, so everywhere was booked. Each proprietor was kind to try to find a place for us to stay. We finally found a place a little outsie of the town. We checked in and headed back out to the town for mass and dinner. The mass was very nice. The priest was very contemporary, I thought. He even quoted ER in his homily! Then we went shopping a bit. Unfortunately, we witnessed a man steal a sweater from outside the store. We alerted an employee and she went out to stop him, but he denied everything. This is the first instance where we’ve seen crime in any of the cities. We’ve felt so safe thus far…and still do really. Tood bad. After shopping and mass, we went to dinner. I got some more Beef and Guinness stew. Yum. Matt had salmon potato cakes. Then we went to listen to a man singing traditional Irish music. He reminded me a little too much of a certain staff person at Hope who likes to play guitar and attempts a Celtic accent.
Off to Blarney and Cork tomorrow.
HUH for the day…It’s amazing how Europeans can fit two cars on pretty much a one lane road with a cliff to your left and a mountain to your right. Yep, we’ve been doing a lot of praying and “sucking in” as we inch our car through the tight squeezes. Heaven forbid you try to figure out how to pass a bus or truck!
Also,we saw our first real shamrock today. We asked where to look for some and they said their in the ditches. I don’t think they’re as popular in this country as we thought. They sure do show up in the gift stores, though.
That’s all for now.
Cheers!
We woke up for a “grand” breakfast. We spoke with a gentleman who was in town from Dublin for a wedding. He overheard me saying that we were in Ballyheigue to check out the sites for Casement and Monteith. He told me that there was a dog on that boat as well. The dog ended up at a restaurant or store in town and people bred a line from the dog. He bred some as well from the dogs he had. They are in the fourth generation of dogs in the line now. I told him that was interesting because I’m pretty much the fourth generation from Monteith as well, except that he was a step-greatgrandfather to me.
From Ballyheigue, we went to do the Ring of Kerry. From what we were told, that’s the one thing that every visitor to Ireland must do. The Ring is a road that takes you around a peninsula in the Atlantic Ocean and Dingle Bay. The views were absolutely spectacular. We stopped at one gift shop and there happened to be a professor from Memphis Thological Seminarary (which is right down thte street from our house). He is in Ireland for a one-year sabbatical. It was nice to meet him. We continued on the Ring of Kerry to a ferry which took us over to Valentia Island. It was a quaint area where monks once lived. There was a huge slate quarry there as well. We stopped at an old cemetery to take photos. This land was amazing!
We finally got around the Ring to Kenmare. This is a nice village with great shopping and pubs. They are known for their lace and linen. It took us awhile to find a B&B with vacancies. There was a triathalon and big golf tournament there this weekend, so everywhere was booked. Each proprietor was kind to try to find a place for us to stay. We finally found a place a little outsie of the town. We checked in and headed back out to the town for mass and dinner. The mass was very nice. The priest was very contemporary, I thought. He even quoted ER in his homily! Then we went shopping a bit. Unfortunately, we witnessed a man steal a sweater from outside the store. We alerted an employee and she went out to stop him, but he denied everything. This is the first instance where we’ve seen crime in any of the cities. We’ve felt so safe thus far…and still do really. Tood bad. After shopping and mass, we went to dinner. I got some more Beef and Guinness stew. Yum. Matt had salmon potato cakes. Then we went to listen to a man singing traditional Irish music. He reminded me a little too much of a certain staff person at Hope who likes to play guitar and attempts a Celtic accent.
Off to Blarney and Cork tomorrow.
HUH for the day…It’s amazing how Europeans can fit two cars on pretty much a one lane road with a cliff to your left and a mountain to your right. Yep, we’ve been doing a lot of praying and “sucking in” as we inch our car through the tight squeezes. Heaven forbid you try to figure out how to pass a bus or truck!
Also,we saw our first real shamrock today. We asked where to look for some and they said their in the ditches. I don’t think they’re as popular in this country as we thought. They sure do show up in the gift stores, though.
That’s all for now.
Cheers!
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12:57 PM
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