Ring of Kerry

We stayed overnight at Tralee in another old stately hotel. No wedding this time, so we slept well. We started at Killarney driving clockwise as coaches must drive anticlockwise.
The drive was slow but the stops frequent.
Ladies View - Ireland's most photogenic girl.
We stopped to be regular tourists in the first town, Sneem
Clare bought clan Donnelly coasters and we checked out the t-shirts.
The coastline was rugged and windswept, but it seems tourists flock here for the summer. There was one brave swimmer and a young family in raincoats off to the beach.
We stopped at a ring fort which seemed much higher than when we visited nearly 40 years ago.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saint Privat D'Allier to Saugues

Image
20.3kms (44.9) 728m up  Today was a hard day in the office. But a lovely office. We walked up for about an hour out of Saint Privat then down 300m to a pretty riverside village then up for the rest of the day.  It was also a beautiful walk. Mostly in forests and on easy dirt tracks or quiet country roads. We got sweeping valley views. l We then walked up for about 4 hrs before turning down for the last kilometre. Our rest was at a chamber d'hote(a bed and breakfast). We shared dinner and breakfast with three french couples, also walking, who had better english than our french.
Read more

Cashel and Glendalough

Image
We start the day in Cashel after a long drive from Dingle. The Rock of Cashel was the highlight and a grand old hotel made the small town very comfortable. We then headed towards Dublin on our first M (motorway) Road before braving tiny roads to Glendalough. This is the site (now uninhabited) where Claire's ancestors we think Great Great Great Grandfather mined lead. It was also the site of an sixth century monastery founded by St Kevin. The site stretched up the valley for 4 kilometers, starting with the monastic site and graveyard, a lower then an upper lake (photographed) then the mine site ruin. Interestingly a second mine was called Van Diemen's land. On the shoe of the lower lake was our first wild animals (2) in Ireland. We then drove on to return our car at Dublin airport and join a tour group for a few days in Northern Ireland.
Read more

Cahors and Avignon

Image
We have stopped walking! Our hotel room looks out on this UNESCO listed bridge. The town is surrounded by a loop of the river Lot. We have been walking along this river on an off for over a week. It has been getting less muddy and more majestic. These shells symbolise the Chemin (path of St James) which continues on from here to Santiago de Compostella in Spain (another 1200kms). We walked the last 800 in 2013??. Our hotel room was large and cool. It was a great resting place, even if it was only 18hrs. We had a three leg train (6hrs) trip to Avignon the following day. The French let anything on trains. They also dream up crazy ways to travel. Two pilgrims/adventurers on bike and motorised skateboard. Does anyone know what this is. All the leaves were doing this?
Read more