Our busy day in Killarney begins with a quick breakfast at 7:30AM in the hotel.  This time we actually had servers who took our orders, though when I asked if I could have scrambled eggs, sausage, and pancakes, she just said “No, you can’t have two breakfasts”.  We somehow compromised with scrambled eggs and pancakes, and I stole a sausage from Jody. 

Our first stop was a walk across the street for a “jaunty car” ride which is evidently Irish for a horse and buggy ride.  Since our hotel is right next door to the Killarney National Park, our jaunty car ride was a 1 hour ride through the Killarney National Park, and though it was a little cold at about 55 degrees with a wind at times, it was still a pleasant ride with Carole and Gary, Bob and Diane, Jody and myself, with James as the driver and Suzie the horse.  James was a local who lived about 5 minutes away, and would point out items of interest and talked about life in Killarney.

There were plenty of deer along the way, and the ride was a relaxing way to begin our rather busy day.   When the jaunty car ride ended, our bus was waiting to take us on the next leg of our journey, The Ring of Kerry.  The Ring of Kerry is a 111 mile circle around County Kerry and the Killarney National Park.  It climbs up and down through the Mcgillicuddy Reeks mountains, with roads so narrow that buses could not pass each other.  For this reason, all tour buses run counter-clockwise so they never meet each other head on.  The views were scenic as we passed all along the shoreline, or through the mountains.

Our first stop was in Waterville, Ireland, home of another world famous golf course, but for us it was home of the mid-morning toilet.  We stopped right along the shoreline and were able to at least take a picture of the water.  There is a famous statue of Charlie Chaplin, as he was known to often visit during his heyday.  It was all very picturesque, but also freezing cold.  The temperature was in the low 50’s with a continuous wind of at least 30 knots.  So we put on our hoods to try and block the breeze and braved the elements for a visit to the local convenience store and to snap a few pictures.   It didn’t take long and we were back on the bus, trying to thaw from our frozen adventure.

Our next stop was at the Lady of Wayside statue at Ballinskellig Bay.  The view overlooking the bay is spectacular and we could even make out the ruins of an old circular fort.  It was just as cold up here as in Waterford, and by now we both wished we had dressed a little warmer, but we’re here now, and we’re not going to let a little cold deter us!

By now we were getting a little hungry and we were getting close to our next stop in Sneem for lunch.  Lunch was at the Bank House B&B in Sneem, Ireland.  The Bank House is the oldest house in Sneem, and it’s owners Noel and Margaret served us a homemade lunch of sandwiches and tea or coffee.  For dessert we had homemade scones with homemade raspberry jam and cream.  Jody had been waiting all trip for some scones with jam and cream since we got here and was excited that it was even homemade.   Everything was delicious and Noel entertained us with stories of visits by Maureen O’Hara when he was a child, and Margaret was only too proud to show us her home.     It was a delightful visit and everyone really enjoyed the visit.

After lunch, we did a little wandering around Sneem, checking out the sights.  There wasn’t much there, but I did manage to find a Ring of Kerry t-shirt and magnet.  We all loaded back on the bus and headed for our last stop on the Ring of Kerry, the Ladies View.  The Ladies View is so named by the ladies-in-waiting who accompanied Queen Victoria to Ireland in 1861 naming this scenic overlook as their favorite place.  We stopped at the scenic overlook to take some pictures, and while we were all off the bus, Cam used this opportunity to take a group photo.  It had begun to drizzle a little to go along with the cold and the wind so we didn’t stay too long before retiring to the warmth of the bus.  By now it was getting close to 3:00PM and time to head back to the hotel  Fortunately, we were done with the bus for the day, as our remaining adventures were within walking distance.

Once we got back to the room, we noticed that our international phone service had stopped.   It had been working perfectly since our arrival in London, but now all of a sudden it was showing “No Service”.  I connected to the hotel Wi-Fi and contacted Verizon through chat.  After waiting about 20 minutes, I finally had an agent that told me there was a system wide outage, and that it was not just us and that they were working as hard as they could to get service restored.   I then did a google search and found a CNN article saying the same thing, without an expected time of a fix.  For now, we have Wi-Fi in the hotel and on the bus, so we will make do and hope it gets fixed soon.

Meanwhile, we have a 4:00PM excursion called “An Irish Pub Experience”, which starts out with the opportunity to step behind the bar at Courtneys, a 19^th century pub behind the hotel, and pour your own Guinness, an experience that Jody and I figured we could probably live without.  But after the display of Guinness pouring prowess, we went upstairs to be entertained by Johnny Mack, a local Irish folk singer.  We weren’t sure what to expect, but it was just him, his guitar and no microphone in a small room above the bar with about 30 of us.   He sang and told stories for about an hour, mostly his own creations and some traditional Irish songs.  His music was quiet and relaxing with some sad and some happier songs.  He had a great voice, and just seemed to be quite a local character.

After our pub experience, we headed back to the hotel before heading out for dinner.  Tonight's dinner was an unusual arrangement where the group was given the choice of one of three restaurants along with the menu and we picked which one we wanted.  All were within walking distance, and Cam walked us over and dropped us off in whichever one we chose.  We picked Caragh, a traditional Irish food restaurant, though there was an Italian and an upscale Irish restaurant available.

There were seven of us who chose Caragh, and we ended up sharing a table with Omer and Traci from Los Angeles.  They are the “young” couple on our tour, though they are in their 40’s.  Jody and I picked this place because they had food we liked:  Fish Cakes for an appetizer, Cottage Pie for the main, and brownie and ice cream for dessert.  They were all delicious and we came away stuffed.  Omer’s beef stew and Traci’s lamb shank looked great also.  We also found out that the extra luggage piece that we  had received the first night belonged to Traci, and she was worried when it didn’t appear on the first night.  They were great dinner companions, especially when Jody and Traci started talking about hamsters.

Soon dinner was over, and it was time to walk back to the hotel.  Tomorrow we leave for the Blarney Castle in the morning, with a tour of the Waterford crystal factor in the afternoon.