Day 20

This morning we had breakfast at 07:15 and left at 08:00.  Today we drove around the Ring of Kerry and the weather gods have NOT been kind - of all days for it to rain..!  Not fair… 

First stop was at Muckross house for those doing the optional excursion there – we chose not to and instead, those of us who had opted out, were dropped in the centre of Killarney, which is a very nice place.  We headed into a new mall there for a cup of hot chocolate to take the chill off things.  Once we picked the others up we continued on our journey.

The views today were unbelievable, but the weather really affected things, there was quite a bit of mist and rain too.   The scenery is much more rugged than what we have seen so far, but so, so beautiful.  There were small settlements here and there and isolated farms.  We drove up mountain passes and down into low-lying valleys, around little bays… it was all just too beautiful for words!  If only the sun had shone, it would have been completely awesome.  Grant and I have decided that we’d like to spend a full week in (on?) the Ring of Kerry – we just have to come back to see it again oneday!

We stopped at a quaint little pub at about 11am, it was called The Red Fox Inn and they claim to serve Ireland’s finest Irish Coffee, as we walked in they had a table set up to do just that and were doing a brisk trade, so we felt we had to put them to the test, and the Irishes were indeed fine!  First time in my life I have had an Irish before lunch! 

Then it was off to a restaurant over-looking Dingle Bay for lunch, what a view this place had!  But of course, the weather didn’t play ball and within half an hour of our arriving the mist had come in and you couldn’t see more than a metre in front of you!  Irritation!

We drove back to our hotel, through more picturesque little villages, it’s all just so pretty!  A return visit is now firmly on my bucket list.

We got back to our hotel at about 3:30 and have decided on a quiet, lazy afternoon.  I would have liked to walk into the village, but it’s a bit cold and miserable for that unfortunately.  I don’t mean to sound moany, groany, we have been SO lucky with the weather so far, but really, the weather today has spoilt things – this was probably the most picturesque day of our tour and the day that depended most on the weather and the weather was plain lousy!  Grrrrrr…..