Friday at Dingle

Friday was so jam packed I hope I can remember it all. I seriously encourage you to check out Annie's blog (http://annieire.blogspot.com/) because she really covers the day in great detail. It's all a blur to me, but she actually took notes of all of our locales and stops and recalls it wonderfully in her postings. I hope you are checking it out.

So, we had an excellent breakfast at the Tralee Inn and were back on the bus by 9am. We picked up Sheila, our guide for the day. She did a wonderful job of sharing with us all sorts of stories of the sights we were seeing. Her accent was different than those we have heard in Dublin. She was delightful.

Our first stop of the day was Inch beach, a beautiful long beach that was the site of the movie, Ryan's Daughter (which I now have to put on my Netflix list). A few of our students took off their shoes and waded in the bitter cold water. One brave student decided to mark his 26th birthday with a full body immersion. I was shivering with my scarf, gloves and earmuffs (taken off for the picture!). I can't even imagine taking a swim. The views from this beach were amazing.

All of our stops throughout the day were quick ones. We were definitely on a strict schedule, for a couple of reasons. First, we had to do the entire Dingle Peninsula by 2:30, as the Dean and his wife had to catch a train back to Dublin so they could fly home on Saturday. Second, we needed to catch a ferry by 3:30, or the rest of our day would be in jeopardy.

We made a few brief stops as we proceeded through Dingle and out to the Peninsula, mostly for photo opts. It was just an amazing display of beauty as the landscape and sky met the water. I can't even try to describe it. The weather cooperated perfectly as it was usually dry and sometimes sunny when we would stop, and rain and sometimes hail when we would be on the bus. It resulted in quite a few rainbows.

We did make it back to Dingle for the Dean and his wife to leave with Sheila to catch the 3pm train. We also made it to the ferry with ten minutes to spare. As you can imagine, the ferry was huge, as our bus and the other dozen or so cars were dwarfed by the size of the vessel. We traveled 20 minutes across the Shannon River to Lahinch. It was terribly cold standing on the deck on the ferry, and it did begin to precipitate, so the last few minutes of the ferry ride were spent on the bus.

When we arrived at Lahinch we checked into two hotels right next to each other, owned by the same person. The Atlantic Hotel was a wonderful old hotel with winding hallways and charming rooms, complete with a window seat. The few shops that were open in this mostly tourist seaside town were closing in about an hour so we quickly made our way to a local wool store where I was able to purchase a lovely scarf to match my jacket. We purchased a few gifts and then wandered back to the hotel to get ready for a late, but incredibly delicious, three course Irish meal.

We were determined to find some live Irish music for our evening entertainment, but the event was cancelled in the hotel next door and the pub down the street (where a number of our students were celebrating the birthday of the morning swimmer) was playing reggae. Not exactly what we had in mind. When the third (and final) pub on the street was playing something not Irish, we decided to call it a night.

All in all, a very good day on the Dingle Peninsula.