Ring of Kerry

Some of the most beautiful scenery we’ve seen is along the Ring of Kerry where the Atlantic Ocean and beautiful hills and coastline connect and totally leave you in awe of the contrast of colors of the land and the power of the sea.  Rita kept saying over and over that God must love Ireland since He blessed this land with so much beauty.  After breakfast we were surprised with the clear weather since we were anticipating rain and clouds and even contemplated that we were not going to attempt driving the Ring.  The morning was bright and clear and other than the wind it was beyond anything you can describe or even have a camera capture.  The whole drive is about 140 miles on some of the most bizarre roads you will encounter.  I think I could now drive in Kenya or Mexico.  Everyone drives at 100 km (about 65 mph) around curves that would make the bravest man wet his pants.  I finally learned to keep the speed at what I was comfortable with and pulled off when I got a line of cars behind me.  Rita was enjoying the view and I was clutching the wheel and praying I would not sideswipe the next oncoming car or hit a one of the many stone fences within inches of passenger side.  Rita would say “get over” and I kept saying “Where?”  It took us almost 5 hours to drive the Ring, but we did stop to take a few pictures & rest.

 

We ended the drive going through the Killarney Forrest that is nothing like our forests.  The forest appears to have all leafed trees with no evergreens so the fall colors should be fabulous.

Coming into Cork and trying to find our Hotel was like trying to drive through LA and Portland during rush hour while not having a clue where you were going on the left side of the road while pedestrians darted between the cars..  The hotel was hidden up a hill that took us over 2 hours to find.  I don’t think we are leaving this room tomorrow till I regain my nerves.  Rita was laughing just before we went to sleep about a “castle” she saw as we came into Cork.  She thought it would be a wonderful place to visit.  When we asked the name of the “castle” we found out it was a Psychiatric Hospital.  We both thought we were ready to be admitted since we had already tried to check into the Montenotte Care Center which we thought was the hotel. 

Amy, tell Whitney that we met her friend Bernadette “Bern” once we got settled into the hotel and she thought we needed a little libation to settle our travel nerves.  She was so sweet, so tell Whitney we delivered her package. 

Just read your e-mails so this is all I have of some of our lodging.  Will  try to do better, but they were nice rooms

 

The Old Ground Hotel where we stayed the first two nights.  The staff was GREAT!

Dinning Room at the Grove Lodge dining room where we ate breakfast.  Our room had the same window and view of the river below.  Rita laughed when she saw the sheets hung out by the river and figured out that was why our sheets were a bit damp that night :-)