Europe Photo Album
Ireland: Ballybunion - town
On Thursday morning, Connie, Steve, Barb & Colleen headed up to see Dublin, then onto the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. Dad needed to do some things with students in the morning, so we drove up to Ballybunion, home of a world-famous golf-course. We stopped in the town first.
In the city of Ballybunion, there's a castle -- much of which has fallen into the ocean, unfortunately, but which is still pretty. (oh, and this is where Becky's camera decided to die, so pics here on out are mostly Matt's)
The Ballybunion beach has great cliffs -- and beyond the southern ones, you can see the mountains of the Dingle Peninsula in the distance.
We found the scripture reference on this sign on the Ballybunion beach interesting.
Once again, the weather was perfect. In this picture from the Ballybunnion beach, you can see the Dingle Peninsula and the MacGillicudy reeks in the distance.
Oddly enough, Ballybunion has a status honoring the noted visited of Bill Clinton during his presidency. Matt remarks that nobody puts up a statue when he plays a round of golf!
There are businesses named "Walsh" in every city you drive through. We took a picture of just one - the Mary Walsh boutique, which is for sale! Either of my aunts by that name could just take over the shop! :)
Ballybunion - golf course
The main reason for this short trip was to see the Ballybunion golf course. When we return to Ireland someday, Matt will take his clubs and play a round here.
Ranked among the top courses in the world, this traditional links-style course has been home to major tournaments and other casual players for centuries. They had a path where even non-golfers could walk to see the course and shore.
The Gap of Dunloe
Thursday afternoon, Dad left his students to work on projects, so the three of us went to walk the Gap of Dunloe. This was definitely a highlight of our trip! The Gap of Dunloe walks between some peaks in the MacGuillicutty Reeks -- the highest points in all of Ireland. It's a great place for a hike -- combining a road (that's supposedly off-limits to cars, more about that later), with images up to two different hills, with streams, waterfalls, lakes, deer, sheep, flowers, and trees everywhere.
The start of the walk:
The walk takes you near to four lakes.
We saw sheep up-close on this walk. Sheep in Ireland are marked by their owners with colored paint. Bruce tells us that this is how you can get sweaters in colors other than just white. Oh, and also, some sheep are bred to have longer left legs and some have longer right legs. This is to help them walk on the sides of the hills. (and now that I've written that on the internet, you know it must be true) Haha.
We also saw this Fawn hiding in the grass just off the road.
The water trickles down the mountainsides, creating impromptu small waterfalls throughout the area. (the third picture is a zoomed in shot of a waterfall on one of the high cliffs)
Here are pictures of dad and daughter, resting a bit before we head back down.
We didn't do the entire walk, but turned around here to head back down. Note the curvy steeper parts ahead! (Dad & his students did this trip to the top the next week.)
There are a few lakes along the way -- still enough to reflect the pretty flowers surrounding them.
Cala lillies and Fuscia were growing like bushes in the yards of the few houses along the way.
The Gap of Dunloe road is supposed to be limited to Jaunting Cars (horse-drawn) and local resident's cars -- however others seem to bypass the barricades to drive it anyhow. The road is narrow, so when such cars come by, you have to get off to the side to let them pass. Near the end of the walk, we hear a car coming so jump off to the left. A moment later, Becky's yelling "He Hit Me!" Yep, the car didn't pull over and the side-mirror whacked me in the elbow. I lived, of course (and wasn't even injured more than startled) but it's still a story of how I was hit by a car on vacation!
Muckross House
The Gap of Dunloe is part of the Killarney National Park (the same place where Torc Waterfall and Ladies View lie). It's also adjacent to the Muckross Estate. Before driving back into Tralee for a nice dinner, we wandered the grounds at this lovely mansion.
Matt and Becky outside the Muckross House
Muckross House sits on the shores of one of the lakes of Killarney.
The grounds are absolutely covered in beautiful flowering bushes like these.
File this one under random.
