Monday, May 4, 2015

Day Three in Ireland {Killarney and the Ring of Kerry}

Saturday was our third day in Ireland and a  full day in Killarney...
Walking along the streets all the pubs had the damage from the night before lined up against their back walls.
We found the UndergrounD Cafe and got some Irish Breakfast Tea, a Vanilla Latte and some WAFFLES!  Sonja always waits so patiently as I document all the delicious food.
Once we finished breakfast we set out to find the Ring of Kerry and passed this beautiful church on the way.
What we thought was an official destination turned into a several hour long journey in a circle.
we just kept going and going.
We started to get really far away from everything, new cities and towns, more hills and even coasts.
We eventually started to think we were never going to find this Ring of Kerry.
so I pulled into this rest stop to ask but they were closed.
so we turned around and headed back.
We passed more beautiful views.
We got to as gas station and asked about this Ring.  Turns out the road and path we were on was called the Ring of Kerry, literally, driving in a circle.  So we decided to head into the nearest town for lunch.  We originally only went in search of the Ring to meet up with my Grandma's tour group, who had it on their itinerary, unfortunately no one told us it was a route, so kept expecting to get "there" {probably didn't help our expectations that the day before in the lobby of the hotel, there were post cards with stone circles with the caption Ring of Kerry, which I thought was a monument, but no, they were just stops along the ring}.
but, it's cool, I mean look how beautiful the water is!
We had to drive through more trees to get back.
and we found some cows along the way.
Passed this church on our way back to the city centre.
And this cool sculpture was right before town.
Once we were back in the city proper we headed to my Grandma's hotel.
Wasn't her view from the Plaza Hotel just adorable?!
After meeting back up with everyone we walked around and the girls found some souvenirs.
My sister and I snuck off for a quick bite to eat.  Thankfully, my mom gave me a little bit of a break from being on mom duty so I was able to eat this amazing soup without small humans climbing on me.
Goat Cheese and Chutney Spread From the Failte Restaurant 
We stopped at Gaelic Gelato on our way back for some hot chocolate but I should have got the girls some of that Wonka's Delight, too bad they already has so much sugar though out the day.
My sister got an amazing Cinnamon Hot Chocolate and I got an espresso, very much necessary because that night we set out for another round on the Ring of Kerry to find the dark sky conservation area, for my sister to capture some star photos.
On a clear night the southern most part of Ireland is completely dark and you can see so many stars, the surrounding towns have light restrictions so the sky remains dark.  Perfect for star gazing.
Even with slight clouds obstruction the view was beautiful and totally worth the drive, again.



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