Ireland #2

We stayed a night in the beautiful seaside town of Dingle which is out near the end of a peninsula on the west coast of Ireland. It was one of the most picturesque towns we saw which also made it quite touristy.

The view from our bnb.

Doing our laundry is always a problem when traveling but we happened to find an outdoor one in a car park in Dingle- perfect.
The harbour was great with yachts, fishing boats and people rowing.

We drove around another peninsula called The Ring of Kerry which is the area we were told was a must-see. Stopped at Waterville where Charlie Chaplin must have spent some time.

O'Shea's  pub where we had a meal in the tiny village of Sneem. The band is getting ready to play.

Our last peninsula trip took us over the Healey Pass where we had wonderful views.

You never know where he is going to appear next. This was on the summit of the pass.

A high country lake.

We were very impressed with the roads even though they were narrow in places.
We expected to see crofting type houses in the west of Ireland but were surprised to see good quality housing even on the farms. It seems as though billions of euros were poured into Ireland when they first joined the EU and that raised the standard of living. This part of Ireland was very poor before that.

Stayed a night in Bantry where we had Irish music playing till late in the bar below our room.
It seems that most pubs have a band which starts playing around 9-30pm most days of the week.

The main square in Bantry.

There was a music festival on for the week. The town is also known

for its violin and bow factory where I was  able to see four people making the instruments from scratch.

Next town was Skibberoon where we looked over the Famine museum. This part of Ireland was very badly affected by the 1846 to 1851 potato famine where they got a blight in the spuds and the crops failed for several years. Huge numbers died and over 1 million people went to the USA. There were 8.5 million Irish in those days but now it is down to 4.6 million.

We visited Blaney castle just out of Cork but the queue was far too long for me so I just watched from down below as people bent  over backwards to kiss the stone

This is where a bloke stands on these metal bars and helps the thousands of tourists to bend upside down. Apparently kissing the stone is meant to endow you with great eloquence and the gift of flattery.

The Blaney house through the extensive gardens is open to the public as well.