The Second Half of Ireland

Wednesday morning we woke up and drove to Cork where Karin's been studying. It was another 2 hour drive, however, early on we had found ways to entertain ourselves on our drive. Mainly, someone picks a new language for the GPS to talk to us in and we all have to guess. We managed to be yelled at by Garmin in languages from a number of countries including China (both Mandarin and Cantanese), Turkey, Poland, Romania, and Luxemberg. Once in Cork we visited Karin's college (University College Cork) and her apartment and also the English market in town. The market was full of fresh fruits and veggies, butchers, and even some homemade chocolate shops. After that we went to the Jameson Distillery where we got to learn all about what makes their whiskey unique and of course sample it. Dad even got to be an official whiskey taste tester (he has the certificate). Finally, we ended the day by meeting some of Karin's friends out for a nice dinner.

Thursday, we took the short drive over to start our tour of the Ring of Kerry. Mostly we drove it, stopping off at a few (beautiful) view points of Irish countryside and even some beaches. Karin (who had been here before) picked 2 of her favorite places for us to check out a little longer. The first was the highest point on Valentia Island. We (of course) had another beautiful clear day where you could see for miles, so I don't know what everyone's talking about all this rain and fog in Ireland. From there, we viewed the Kerry Mountains and the Skillig Islands (one of the most severe environments where Monks set up a Monestary). We even played with some sheep on the mountainside on the way down. The second place Karin took us to was an old stone fort ruin. That evening we went into Killarney, walked the village a bit and settled in for the night.

Good Friday, we started by taking a morning hike in Killarney National Park. It was beautiful of course, the highlight being a stop by a waterfall. After, we drove into Dingle. I briefly checked out the town and found a gorgeous marble ring. Most important though, we met up with our guide to go sea kayaking. We spent 3 hours on the ocean and it was a very different and cool way to view the landscape. We also got to kayak into a cave and see Fungi, Dingle Pennisula's famous dolphin.

Saturday, we woke up leisurely and spent the morning strolling around the town of Adare. Then we headed toward the airport with a stop at Durty Nelly's for lunch. It is right next to the huge Bunratty Castle and dates back to 1620 (older than our country!)

Finally, we reached the Shannon Airport to continue our journey in Paris...