A road trip!

May 21 & 22 – Day 40-41
I headed out of Dublin early in the morning with a girl from work and a friend of hers that had flown in from Canada. She was really nervous about driving, but she did excellent! We left Dublin and headed to County Kerry. We made a few wrong turns, but recovered quickly. Our first stop was the Gap of Dunlow. It is an amazing scenic area located on the East side of the Ring of Kerry. We went on a 2 ½ hour hike and enjoyed the amazing views along the way. About 3pm we started to drive the Ring of Kerry (word to the wise START EARLIER!). The Ring of Kerry is a 100 kilometer (66 mile) scenic drive in western Ireland. A 66 mile drive sounds like a piece of cake until you factor in very narrow, rough roads. It took us about 5 hours to get around the ring and at the end my friend said that she deserved a shirt that said “I survived driving the Ring of Kerry”. It was a lovely drive, but my favorite parts of the drive were definitely the Gap of Dunlow and Lady’s view (both on the east side of the circle). I was a passenger in the back seat and sometimes the roads were so rough that I felt like I was on an old fashioned wooden roller coaster being jolted around. We drove for 11 hours before we arrived at our B&B in Killarney and parked the car for the night.

Next we headed to a few pubs. The first pub felt like the halls of a highschool...truly the patrons looked 14! The next pub had an average age somewhere around 80. It had live music but they were doing a sing along and it reminded us of a nursing home. We laughed so hard our sides hurt and then headed out in search of pub somewhere in the middle. We found a hopping pub with a good band (not traditional Irish music), but it was nice. I can’t remember going to a bar in the states on a Monday night, but I was surprised to find an absolutely packed pub with an attached dance club on a Monday night! We stayed and enjoyed the atmosphere. It was a bit of a late night, but we walked back to the B&B. On Tuesday we walked and shopped in Killarney and then started our long drive back. We stopped at the Rock of Cashel. The guide book describes it as “a spectacular group of medieval buildings set on an outcrop of limestone in the Golden Vale including the 12th century round tower, High Cross and Romanesque Chapel, 13th century Gothic cathedral, 15th century castle and the restored Hall of the Vicars Choral.” After our tour, we headed back to Dublin. It was a good get-away, but I would not recommend going so far for just a 2 day visit because we spent nearly all of our time in the car.