If you seek a beautiful Peninsula

With apologies to Michiganders,,

Okay, after a quick trip back home for local stuff, we’ll cross “the pond” again (as us jet setters say) and go back to Ireland.

Our second day in the Southwest of Ireland was pretty much spent visiting the Dingle Peninsula.  Directions were easy

We headed northwest from Killarney toward the North Atlantic and the Peninsula. This may have been the most scenic and beautiful part of the trip,  (which was helped by the continuing lovely weather)

Our first stop was in the town of Dingle, a lovely little seaside village, probably somewhat “touristy” but in a pleasant way

Seemed to be a common theme to the attractions, and I almost considered abandoning the tour to stay for the

On the way to the real coast we stopped off at the Gallarus Oratory, an early Christian Church, dating from dwelling surviving from the 7^th or 8^th Century.  

Being in the presence of things like this and the Dolman Portal Tomb that have existed for thousands of years, always make me wonder what people were like, how did they live, what did they think, (and eat?), and what a huge part religion was a part of their life.  I have always thought (Oh God, here he goes again) that such a severe life where death was most likely a daily occurrence kind of drove them to consider  “what’s next?”  Of course Christianity offered a nice solution for that.

After seeing the Oratory, we proceeded to the Blasket Island Centre, right on the Coast.

Time and ink (and most likely your patience) doesn’t permit a very long description of Blasket Island, but it is fascinating story.  Another place of more or less isolated culture and people living an incredibly hard life on this island stuck off the coast of Ireland with no access to the "mainland" except by sea

It was one of the last places where “classic” Gaelic continued to be spoken for a long time (into the twentieth century).

The visitor center is extremely interesting, starts you off with a great little movie with lots of historical material, and the museum does a good job of telling the story with lots of visual and audio exhibits, plus some interesting statuary.

As it turned out, we had a special lunch served for us in the little cafeteria, and guess what? It was fish and chips.   That dish is endemic to the British Isles and quality varies from yuck to pretty good.  This edition was in the latter category

The fish was hot, nicely done and the batter was very flavorful and crisp, not like the gummy, soggy stuff you get on the yuck category.  In fact, one of the diners at our table decided to pursue the recipe and was told by a server, and then sort of the manager, that it was “a secret ingredient” and have to shoot you if we…. Etc. Which we took as "I don't know",    Eventually our friend got the scoop, by methods I probably don’t want to know, and the answer was that they use sparkling water in the batter, with a little bit of beer.  At any rate it was very good.

After lunch we visited the obligatory gift shop, and bought a few things including a great little book.  It was a biography of one of the inhabitants of the Island, and I thought the cover photo was sort of captured the feeling of the Island.

We then re-boarded the coach and retraced our steps (one way in, one way out) back to Killarney passing more remnants of the past.

This being the second night in Killarney, dinner was “on our own” but the intrepid Feeder had pre-selected a restaurant based on trip advisor and various culinary web sites.  It was called “Treyvauds”, a short (entertaining) taxi ride from the hotel to downtown.

As usual, the stupid Americans arrived long before the locals thought of eating. 

It was mostly deserted, except for one other table occupied by some Americans.  The reason we know they were Americans was that although the restaurant was pretty much deserted, they felt the need to shout at each other and we found out they were from California.  Unless they started very early, I don’t believe alcohol fueled the conversation.  In fact, after a few minutes the staff went over and asked them to tone it down.  And by the way, they were half way across the restaurant from us. (Opposite the tables above),

And speaking of alcohol, I once again foolishly requested a cocktail, and was told they don’t normally do cocktails but would try a Martini for me.  They were very earnest, and even came back to the table once to verify the recipe.   What finally arrived was a pretty passable cocktail

Shown with the ubiquitous bread and butter plate, and a somewhat  patient MFO in the background (are you done yet?)

The menu offered quite a few choices for appetizers, and some off the menu daily specials.  A sampling of the appetizers:

This was the third of the four “on your own” restaurants I had selected (along with Fishy Fishy, addressed earlier) prior to leaving.  In all honesty I would have to admit that while this was good food, it wasn’t up to the level of the other three (I am happy to say).  Was kind of a “here’s your food” approach.  My entrée of sautéed fish (variety of which I don’t remember) sort of gives you the idea

No frills or froo froo here.  Tasted good, but first we eat with our eyes..

So ended a beautiful day, and we returned to the Hotel for a good night's sleep

Over in Killarney

Many years ago,

Me Mither sang a song to me

In tones so sweet and low…

Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,

Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, that's an Irish lullaby.

DFD

Teaser:  MFO and i are leaving for a weekend in Virginia at an undisclosed B&B.  Depending on time and technology, may be updates or certainly after return..