Part 2 of our 2017 trip through Irleands Southwest and West.
Arriving in Dublin, we immediately got our car and headed southeast. Dublin itself was planed as the Great Final of the tour.
Some people (greetings to Jim) are recommending to hire a car as small as possible, as driving in Ireland can be challenging and Irleands roads are sometimes quite narrow. Indeed they are right. Nevertheless it was great fun driving a not-so-small car on one lane country roads ;)
What I can recommend is definitely an automatic transmission model, as driving on the wrong side is something you get used to, but it takes a little bit. Not sure how people here can drive their whole life long on the wrong side of the road.
Our first stop down to the west was … Kilkenny. Yes, they’re famous for their castle and … their beer. At least I thought when in the evening ordering a local Kilkenny at the pub. The friendly waitress told me, that since many years the Kilkenny was brewed at Guinness in Dublin. Again what learned.
As it was a one night stop in Kilkenny, we had to hurry to see all the things worth visiting here. Old Smithwicks Brewery, Dominican Black Abbey, the Cathedral Church of St Canice or Matt The Millers Bar & Restaurant, just to mention some.
On the road
On our way further down, we went over Jerpoint Abbey and the Rock of Cashel to Killarney, finally reaching our B&B in Beaufort on the Kerry Peninsula.
Kerry
The next days we stayed here, exploring the southwest. Hiking in the Killarney National Park visiting the Muckross House on Loch Leane, the Gap of Dunloe (cool driving experience), Lady’s View, the Ring of Kerry and Valentia Island, from where since 1866 the first permanent communication link between Europe and the North America was operated.
From Beaufort, we headed over to Inch Beach (cool Irish beach), from where we explored the Dingle Peninsula and we met Fungie – the famous dolphin.
… more to come.
In case you’d like to comment, it’s appreciated … and maybe, you want to visit my website or my flickr page too.
So long … and thanks for all the fish.
Unlike most Americans I can drive a manually shifted car, and that’s what we rented in Ireland. It took us a couple days to get used to driving on the wrong side of the road, driving from the wrong side of the car, and shifting with the wrong hand.
Yep Jim, I fully agree. To eliminate at least one ‘wrong-feeling’ factor, we rented the automatic shifting car.