DINGLE, SLEA HEAD, KILLARNEY AND KINSALE, IRELAND

GREEN!  Have I mentioned, that while driving around Ireland, all you see is the greenest of GREEN?  Today we got back in the car to let Timmy do what Timmy does best now—drive on the wrong side of the road!  And he did it well!  He drove us from Tralee to Dingle (yes, there is actually a place in Ireland called Dingle!) to Slea Head, to Killarney, and on to our destination, Kinsale!

We saw mountains,

and a patchwork of green everywhere.

As you can see, we lost our sunshine and warmth today and it was replaced by overcast skies, drizzle and chilly winds.  But we were in a warm car, so no worries!  We drove past a windmill!

We arrived to Dingle and immediately fell in love with this waterside town.  A Norwegian cruise ship had docked, so the town was flooded with people.  We browsed the shops (I bought woolen mittens) and thoroughly enjoyed walking the streets.  

None of us can remember the name of the restaurant where we enjoyed a fabulous lunch, but we had the freshest fish and chips ever!  The waitress said our cod and hake had been brought in on the boat only an hour earlier!

Back in the car, Tim drove us through some of the narrowest roads in Ireland to Slea Head, where the water views are spectacular.

Unfortunately, our water views were filled with fog and mist!  Susan and I wanted so badly to walk the beach and look for sea glass, (thanks, Karen, for the recommendation—we still hope to do that sometime on this trip!), HOWEVER, we opted to stay in the warm car!  Yes, the wind was THAT chilly!

We arrived at Killarney National Park (thanks, Bridget, for the carriage ride recommendation—it was just too darn windy and cold!) and to our very first castle (here you go, Chloe, at long last!)  Ross Castle, 15th-century tower house was located on the edge of Loughery Leane, in Killarney National Park, County Kerry, Ireland. (Whew, that’s a mouthful!)

The castle was nestled on an inlet of Lough Leane (that’s the name of the lake).  There was one lone swan,

and many empty docked tour boats.  Yea, a bit chilly for a boat ride, it was!

We had officially begun The Ring Of Kerry!   The friend that John and Tim had coffee with earlier, had given the guys a list of towns to drive through.  It was our goal to hit them all, but we decided to head for our Airbnb in Kinsale.  It was later than planned and we still had about an hour and a half drive to Kinsale, so that was what we did!

And that ended up being a really good idea!  We arrived at our cute little Airbnb and John wasn’t feeling so well.  So off to bed he went and Tim, Susan and I ordered pizza, drank wine and watched Jack Whitehall Travels With My Father on Netflix! (HYSTERICAL!)

Sorry about the next picture—a duplicate of the green patchwork that is Ireland!  Blogger again 🙄.  It won’t let me cut this picture out!  Oh well, I hope you enjoy another look at GREEN Ireland!  BTW, when I went up to bed, John was feeling much better! 😁