Today we set out early from Doolin towards Killarney.  The drive was pretty good as was the weather.  Instead of taking the coastline all the way in to Limerick, we decided to take the Ferry across the River Shannon, and that saved us a bunch of time.

We made it to Killarney fairly early and were able to leave some bags with reception at the Fairview Hotel.  We were going to grab lunch, but the hotel won’t cover your parking costs in their lot before 6:00pm, so we just set out for a drive around the Dingle Peninsula and picked up lunch along the way.  The drive was nice with some great views of the Ocean and the mountains.  There was even a beach with some people kite-surfing.  I can’t imagine being in that frigid water, though I guess it’s incentive to stay on your board.  We also took a detour at one point and ended up at a dead end road, when we turned to come back, a farmer had just led his herd of cows onto the road, so we were in a traffic jam with cows, it was pretty funny.  The dogs were impressive to see, keeping the herd in line like champs, barking at those slacker cows who didn’t want to move.

I was disappointed with Dingle itself, I was expecting something a little smaller and more quaint like Doolin, but it was a busy town with a little ‘tourist district’ like many others.  But if you’re ever in the area, don’t let Dingle itself be a reason not to take the drive, I think it was well worth it for the scenery.

We got back to Killarney fairly late and had dinner at a little pub called The Laurels.  The food was pretty good, and Robyn tried her first Guinness and liked it, so I’m sure we’ll be ordering more of those.  I’ve been amazed at how quickly these pubs have been bringing us our food.  I don’t think we’ve waited even ten minutes for a meal to be delivered.  At home you might wait a half hour without even thinking about it.  It’s impressed me quite a bit.  At first we thought it was a fluke, but it is becoming a trend.  It’s been a nice surprise.

After dinner we drove into the Park itself and went to Ross Castle.  When I first saw a picture of the castle before our trip, I saw the lights in front of it and I knew they must light it up at night, and I was not disappointed, I got some great shots of the castle at the blue hour.

That’s about it from Day 4, tomorrow it’s off to drive the Ring of Kerry.

Enjoy!!!

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