The ring of Kerry has nothing to do with precious metal or dirty bathtubs. It is a ring road in County Kerry that takes in many beautiful sites. It is circled daily by unwieldy buses filled with tourists. Our guide books told us to go counter clockwise to avoid being stuck behind their belching behinds and we followed this sage advice.
Our first stop was at the home/tourist shop/recreated farm of the good Widow Molly Gallivan. This resourceful woman kept body and soul together by selling farm produce, baked goods, hand spun woolens and the real moneymaker - "Molly's Mountain Dew" which was illegal homemade whiskey that paid the bills. Sadly, it was not available in the gift shop.
Our next stop on the Ring Road was a cow pasture that lead over a stream to a gate with this intriguing invitation
Paying only one euro for the right to trespass was too good a bargain to pass up.
This is Staigue Fort. It is so old Martians may have built it. There is no mortar in between the stones.
They are fitted together so perfectly it is like one of those 5 million piece jigsaw puzzles that the whole family tries to put together over Christmas but it gives everyone migraines and never gets finished. Only...this fort actually got finished!
It also contains several handy hobbit holes where you can stash extra house guests during the winter solstice
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| wild fuchsia grows everywhere |
Every turn in the Ring of Kerry made me rub my eyes in amazement. I tried to get bored by all the beauty but never succeeded.
We ducked into a bakery in the sweet little town of Sneem to have a bite of lunch, narrowly acing out a big bus full of German tourists. The queue in the tiny restaurant formed quickly and suddenly one of the Germans Merkled her way to to front of the line. I guess she figured as a German citizen, the taxes she paid toward bail out money, much of which has gone to Ireland, gave her the right. But drinking hot chocolate and eating pastry, I couldn't muster up any outrage.
After all, I was in Sneem!
Eating pastry!
Drinking hot chocolate!
With cream!
From Irish cows!
In Ireland!
There is a National Forest called Killarney that we didn't get to explore much, but we did walk up to Torc Waterfall through a tree tunnel
Queen Victoria famously visited this place, honoring Ireland five ways to Sunday. I loved imagining her stout figure huffing and puffing down the path. I bet she didn't climb the 5000 steps up the hill.
Just down the road from the waterfall is Muckross House. Muckross is pronounced in a refined manner so it comes out sounding much less like muck and much more like Ross as in Poldark. We arrived too late to tour the house on this day, but walked around the gardens like we owned the place, claiming the grandest clouds like they were all ours.
John Constable was probably up in heaven painting these clouds
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The two Keiths discussing how glad they are they don't have to mow this back garden
Our dreams came true when we found a great pub in Kenmare that served good food and had a fine singer. He alternated between songs from my teenage years (Leavin On a Jet Plane) and tender Irish ballads like "You Drunk You Drunk, You Silly Ol' Drunk"
Carol did such a fine job drumming the table and enjoying the music that she was congratulated as we left. It was a fine evening.
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