European Vacation Day Two

Day Two, June 5th.
We awoke after a good nights sleep and made our way to breakfast again furnished by the hotel. It was a typical European continental breakfast with cereal, yogurt, juice, coffee and a little fresh fruit.
After breakfast we headed out to the Bog Village in Glenbeigh and on around the Ring of Kerry.

 The Bog Village was very neat with it period cottages and piles of cut peat stacked like firewood around the structures. The iron smiths shop used peat for the fire. The peat had a smoky smell like wood.

After we looked over the village we wandered into the Red Fox Inn where Needles and I enjoyed an Irish coffee and looked over the memorabilia on the walls of the bar area. Of course seating and a pool table rounded off the atmosphere that is staples of any decent pub or bar. When we returned to the bus to find out that the door didn't want to shut. So we made our way down the road with the bus door open which actually improved the conditions on the bus since air conditioning seems to used less across the pond. We made our way down the Ring of Kerry.

Our next stop was Caitin's Pub and Hostel at Kells Bay with a nice overlook of Dingle Bay. We headed up the hill after paying for our ticket at the little shack. We stood in a crowd of what seemed like mostly German people from what I could make out.

 A gentleman named Brenden Ferris dressed in gray pants, striped gray shirt and a brown hat proceeded to address the crowd and explain the differences in sheep species, show of some of the rarer breeds in his flock and tell how sheep herding was done and why. We then moved to the show area where there were six sheep a few hundred yards up the hill in a fenced in pasture. He explained how they use different whistles and commands for each dog. He then sent the dogs up the hill to fetch the sheep. The three border collies moved in a coordinated effort being ever aware of the whistled commands echoing up the hill. Before long the sheep were bunched up just a few feet in front of the entertained crowd. The gentleman put on quite a show and demonstrated his complete control over the dogs and the sheep.

After the show we headed on down the road and ended up at the Thatched Cottage Restaurant near Cahersiveen. I had the Irish stew with soda bread while Needles had the smoked salmon salad. Since Needles was expecting a cooked piece of salmon we ended up sharing each others food as I don't mind cold smoked salmon. In our haste to order we ordered ice tea and what we got was warm brewed tea in a cup with about 5 or 6 pieces of ice which had melted by the time we got set down at our table. Needles and I chuckled as we drank our luke warm tea. After our meal we loaded up on the bus and made our way on around the Ring of Kerry on our uncomfortable, broken door bus.

 A few miles down the road we stopped at a scenic area in Beenarourke overlooking the North Atlantic. Looking to the West the next continent is North Americas North East Coast at the level of Newfoundland, Canada. There were a couple of young girls and an older gentleman playing the accordion which made the area seem a little touristy. There is a statue of the Virgin Mary surrounded by a circular stone wall. We ventured on down the Ring of Kerry to make another stop just down the road at O'Carrolls Bar and Restaurant in Glenbeg.

We took the step down to the beach and enjoyed the view of the waves splashing into the white sand beach. On down the road to drive through the small town of Sneem but we didn't get to stop. Next up was Strawberry Fields Pancake and Tea room for a break and beverage.

Next stop was at the Ladies View, a scenic over look back toward Killarney where supposedly Queen Victoria's Ladies in waiting stopped and admired the view during a 1861 visit, hence the name of the area. We headed on down the road for one final stop before completing the Ring of Kerry.

 The Torc Waterfalls was our final stop before returning to Killarney. We had dinner at the hotel which consisted of turkey, ham and stuffing concoction and meringue dessert.

We then headed out to catch a Celtic Step Dancing show at the National Events Center. The show was very well done and featured a couple of step dancers that had national and world titles. The amazing vocals and traditional instruments and music made for a very entertaining evening. We got back to the hotel after stopping of to pick up some of our group that went pub crawling. After a full day we had no trouble falling asleep that night.