Day 4
We left Killarney and headed up to the Dingle Peninsula. Both of us agreed that we enjoyed this peninsula much better than the Ring of Kerry. We had great weather for both, but Dingle seemed a little more scenic!
We weren’t the only ones who thought so- the end of the last Star Wars movie was filmed on the Dingle Peninsula…
The drive around the scenic loop was only 30 km, so it took us only 2 hours to complete with stops. We spent the rest of the day walking the town, eating and listening to live music in multiple pubs! The first stop of the night was in Foxy John's. Hardware store by day, pub by night....
I am so glad that we splurged a little on our 1 night in Dingle. We stayed at Heaton’s Guesthouse, and it was the best (fanciest) B&B we have been to. Tea and chocolate cake were served around 3pm, and breakfast was presented beautifully- and it was delicious!!! Jeff ordered the full Irish breakfast (eggs, sausage, bacon, white pudding, black pudding, tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans, toast, but skipped the beans and toast) and I ordered the smoked salmon omelet. This was a welcome treat to the type of traveling we have been doing. There’s not a whole lot to do in Dingle, but if we come back, I definitely want to stay longer at this B&B because it was so wonderful! Note: there was a marathon in Dingle the day we left, we did not participate, but we saw the runners start!
Day 5
After I had 2 pots of tea with my breakfast, we left Dingle and headed north to the Cliffs of Moher. The weather held out for us and started raining only after we snapped a few photos on the cliffs!
Then we continued just north of Galway to a hostel in Oughterard. We had originally thought we were staying in Galway, but turns out you can’t always trust the internet. Sometimes it pays to double check the address for hotel bookings. Turns out it was a blessing in disguise. We drove right past Galway without stopping. I’m sure it’s a great town and a nice Irish city, but to Jeff and I, cities normally mean expensive hotels, expensive meals and tons of tourist shops that we aren’t going to buy anything in. I can only window shop for so long. Anyway, the Oughterard Angling Center and Hostel was more like a small self-catering guest house. We cooked some great cheap meals in the kitchen, and since we were north of Galway, we were already on our way to Connemara National Park.
We visited the park and went for a day hike up Diamond Hill. I’m not sure what Jeff and I did in another life to have such great karma, but the weather in Ireland has been completely favorable for us!
Connemara National Park
-Cara