2006 Europe Trip
Ireland: Dingle Peninsula
On Tuesday, all of us (other than Dad, who had class) joined up with a tour group for a bus tour of the Dingle Peninsula. We had great weather (which, again, was a welcome surprise) for the day-long tour.
In case you're ever in Tralee and want to take a bus tour, Jackie Power tours did a great job with this, and all the other tours they led for the QU students. Our driver, Dan, was a Tralee-area native, who shared lots of stories and even a few songs in his typical Irish accent. He managed to drive our bus onto some roads that we would never have attempted in the car, also!
Dingle Peninsula stretches out from the Tralee area to the west. It is an area where Gaelic is spoken and promoted heavily -- students from other Irish counties come there every summer to learn the traditional language. Matt and I agree that this is one of the most beautiful places we visited!
The view to the coast - outside Tralee
We saw these a lot!
The weather was perfect, so we got to take a route that can't be used when it's rainy or foggy. We saw a number of hill sides like these, which could easily have been pictures in the default Windows background!
One road in particular was worth noting -- it was just barely as wide as our bus. Here's a rough view of it through the bus window:
That road took us to Inch, considered the best beach in Kerry. From the beach, you can see across the bay to the next peninsula (which we'd see the next day - on the Ring of Kerry tour).
Beautiful blue skies!
Matt took a picture of Becky taking a picture of Steve
Becky and Steve on the beach
Connie, Barb, and Colleen walking down the beach
Becky on the beach at Inch
Matt on the beach at Inch
This sign was on the shop at the Inch beach. Mom remembered this shop being *much* smaller when she was here 35 years ago - but the sign was familiar.
This picture shows a map of the Dingle Peninsula
From Inch, we continued along the coast, stopping at times to see other great views of the bays and hills (the hills in the distance across the bay in some photos are the Ring of Kerry).
We stopped to get refreshments. Here's Colleen posing with her juice box. :)
A historic fort along the coast (just before sleahead)
A buildling built entirely from stone.
We went out towards Slea Head. From here, they say the next parish west is Boston! (I tried to zoom the camera that far, but even 10x didn't do it. haha.)
A seagull flying near Slea Head.
Another Windows XP hill - at Slea Head
A group photo taken at Slea Head
Matt and Becky
Becky
Notice the signs on this pub, written in Gaelic (the Dingle Peninsula is a region where Gaelic is spoken and encouraged)
After Slea Head, we stopped at a point where you can see the Three Sisters (the three peaks to the right side). Colleen's camera has a picture of the real three sisters in front of these hills, which I'll need to find. :)
The main city on the Peninsula is Dingle - referred to in the native language as An Daingean. To take advantage of the good weather, we backtracked to Dingle in the mid-afternoon instead of right at lunchtime. Check out the menu:
Dingle is a fishing town with brightly colored shops along the waterfront. And, yep, we did eat fish -- all of us -- for lunch that day!
A well-known sign in Dingle
Many pubs have signs for Guiness
We really enjoyed the Dingle Peninsula tour. We continue to marvel at how beautiful it was!
