Killarney Ireland (second day)

The Hen Partiers did have their fun, but we have earplugs which helped immensely. Bob, our tour director was on another floor otherwise he said he would have awoken them at 0630 to wish them well. We did see them all coming in from somewhere in their PJs as we headed for the bus. Photo of Bob is included in today’s post. He has a very understandable accent as opposed to Tony our driver who is somewhat less intelligible through his Irish brogue. We are in good hands with them both.

Tour guide Bob

Luckily the sun was mostly shining today, a nice break from yesterday’s rain. Today’s trip was a scenic drive around the Ring of Kerry, basically a loop composed of VERY narrow, winding roads around the Iveragh Peninsula in southwestern Ireland beginning and ending in Killarney. There is an unwritten agreement amongst the tour bus companies that they travel clockwise so there are no coach meeting coach encounters on these roads, as there is a similar agreement for the Dingle peninsula in a counterclockwise direction. We can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like if two of these huge coaches met. It is even a challenge passing the small cars in some of the places. 

We stopped at the Kerry Bog Village which depicts Ireland’s rural history, heritage and lifestyle during and after the famine years of the mid-19th century. The village has period thatched cottages, fully furnished with authentic antiques, complete with sound effects and figures. Outdoors, an array of rural farm equipment used by turf cutters and farmers of the time period is on display. Peat, of course, is the fuel used – we even warmed our hands over a fragrant peat fire. We also saw two of the world’s tallest dog breed: the Irish wolfhound, which belong to the owner of the village.

Pile of peat fuel

Irish Wolfhounds

As we passed through the Town of Killorglin we saw a statue of King Puck which represents the “Puck Fair”, one of Ireland's oldest fairs. Every year a group of people go up into the mountains and catch a wild goat. The goat is brought back to the town and the "Queen of Puck", traditionally a young school girl from one of the local primary schools, crowns the goat "King Puck".

King Puck

At the lunch stop we had traditional Irish stew along with a great view of the ocean.

We eventually arrived back in Killarney and had a jaunting car ride. This is a local phrase for a horse and buggy trip (we looked it up because we wanted to know which came first, the verb or the mode of transport). We were taken to the 15^th century Ross Castle now part of the Killarney National Park. After a brief visit to the castle were returned to town where we had a bit of a chance to explore downtown Killarney before returning to the hotel for dinner. 

Lakes of Killarney

Ross Castle

Jaunting Car

We are meeting more and more of the 38 tour participants as we travel along. Americans, Aussies and Canadians predominate with a couple of New Zealanders and a lone British fellow. Only a few more days left to master all their names – not going to happen!