A drive through Southern Ireland

A great day! I woke up at 6 and went downstairs to read. When the kitchen opened, I went in and had coffee around 8:15 until Walt joined me for breakfast at 8:30.

We went into town. There was a hint of sun in the sky, though the forecast was for rain. Walt bought tickets for a bus tour of the Ring of Kerry. It ended up being a perfect day! We had sun all the way and the scenery was breathtaking--deep green and crystal clear. The trip was fun, though of course the bus stopped at all the tourist places, the "Bog Farm" where a mock village with thatched cottages has been set up and for £ 2.50 you could spend your 20 minute stop going through that. We chose to have a (weak) Irish coffee and walk out onto the road and take pictures back over the back fence to the farm.



We had lunch at The Scarriff Inn, which boasts "Ireland's most famous landscape" or some such thing. It was definitely beautiful and lunch (crab salad for me) was delicious, though overpriced--and no prices posted, so you hadn't a clue what you were paying.

We stopped in town after the bus returned and bought Christmas presents for Jeri, Ned, Marta and Tom. Now we are back at the B&B until dinner.

Midnight

Went back to town for dinner. I waited on the street for Walt to move the car to a legal parking places (people don't seem to pay much attention to what is legal and what is not legal in parking, especially in Killarney--but Walt was nervous about it). I ran into Judy and Art, a couple from Atlanta who had been on the bus tour. We talked a bit when a drunk came up and, on learning where Judy and Art lived, proceeded to give us a lecture on the American civil war, 99% of which was unintelligible. We could only understand "Grant," "Lee," "Pickett's charge," and "Sherman." Judy and Art stayed with me until he moved on to a friendly pub.

Walt finally arrived with the car and we walked to a music store where we bought CDs for Alice and something for Ned. Then we had a pretty mediocre dinner (Killarney ham for me, Irish stew for Walt) at Stella's cafe, where we were among the last patrons for the night. Some of the others in the place, tho, were from the Tenby Choir, which was still in town.

Then back to Danny Mann's pub for music by the Irish Weavers. Judy and Art came and joined us. What a fun evening. They played for 2 hours nonstop and at the end we bought one of their CDs.

Day 4 - Back to Dublin

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