We stayed at an interesting B&B, Eileen Collins' B&B. It was well recommended and I'm sure that's because of Eileen - she was wonderful - and her place was right in town. It just had little oddities, which made for a colorful visit. We usually met out by the fish pond, pictured below. A rubber pond that didn't quite get buried deep enough that was visited by plastic and cement animals of all sorts and sizes. We loved it. From her place we could walk almost everywhere, which we did!
The first evening we walked around the harbor, found a fun spot for dinner, and watched a fishing ship unload by spewing fish and water into waiting trucks.
The next morning, after a private breakfast in the living room, we set off by car to tour the Dingle peninsula. First stop was a hike to the Eask Tower on top of the mountain across from the town of Dingle. We parked, and started up through fields of sheep and sheep dung. The views from the top were absolutely spectacular in every direction!
After washing and scrubbing the bottoms of our boots at a nearby farmhouse, we hopped back in the car and continued the tour. We stopped at a beach, then a heritage center where we learned all about the Blasket Islands (very interesting), then continued our tour inland past rugged coastal mountains and many new-construction homes abandoned with the downturn in the Irish economy after the 'Celtic Tiger.'
As if that wasn't enough for a day, once we got back to the town of Dingle, Rick (as in Rick Steves) suggested a walk to the 'Castle' and lighthouse so off we went. It was a mostly flat walk across a grass path and muddy beach, where two people were exercising their horses in the shallow water (kinda cool to watch), and then past the castle to the lighthouse, which guides boats into the Dingle Bay. Again the views in every direction were beautiful.
We had read about 'Fungi,' a dolphin who lives in the mouth of the bay and greets fishing boats as they leave and return each day. And just as we realized we had walked to the mouth, we realized the tour boats were going back and forth looking for Fungi. You can actually take Fungi Tours. We looked over and watched and lo and behold, we saw Fungi! Very exciting!
As we walked back to town along the path, we noticed the local cows had decided to rest on the path. Nancy thought they looked friendly enough to pet. Mostly they were disinterested in us. You can see that we had our sweaters and jackets off - it was actually quite warm in Ireland our entire trip.
And, this particular day was Sep 26 - aka Arthur's Day in 2013 - a massive party day in honor of Arthur Guinness who founded his brewery in Sep 1759. We couldn't have been in a better spot to partake in the celebrations! Another post.
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