The Adventures of O'Sandi in Ireland - Day 3...

Our Friday, March 29th, would begin with breakfast for all of us at the Riverview Hotel. Then we would board our coach for a full day ride around the Ring of Kerry.

Mary, our tour guide, told us they think of Ireland as the shape of a teddy bear. Think of the bear sitting with his legs out to the left side. The head would be the northern Ireland portion. We didn't venture into that area much. From the neck down is southern Ireland were we spent most of our vacation. On the west side of Ireland is the Atlantic Ocean. On the southern half of this west coast of Ireland are three peninsulas. These would be the feet and arms of the teddy bear. They are each beautiful in their own right. The Ring of Kerry on the Iveragh Peninsula is the center of these peninsulas and that is where our tour would take us.

First we stopped at St. Anne's Cathedral in Killarney. While not Catholic I still love to visit a Catholic cathedral. They are magnificent creations and ,for a person who likes to take photographs, they provide many, many wonderful angles and views. St. Anne's was our first cathedral to visit and it did not disappoint in the least. Here are a few pictures from St. Anne's Cathedral in Killarney, Ireland.

The first town of any size we passed through was Killorgin.

Along the highway were these bushes that were filled with yellow buds or flowers. Mary explained they were 'gorse' bushes. In Winnie the Pooh he gets stuck in a bush at some point and that bush is a gorse bush. They reminded me of sage brush out west in America. They have the fragrance of almonds. However, their little leaves are really pointed and with the power to stick you real good. Gerald, our coach driver, pulled to the side of the highway so we could take some pictures of gorse bushes. I snapped a twig and took it back to the bus for those who didn't feel they wanted to traipse out into the cold air for this photo op.

Gerald would also stop at a lookout along the coast.

It seems Queen Victoria came to Ireland. When she came she brought her own train!!! They literally had to build rail tracks for her train. This is one of those tracks that has been abandoned.

On the outskirts of Cahersiveen we pause to view a monument to Daniel O'Connell. I was more impressed with this view of a little river headed to the ocean.

And a little further down that same highway was a monument to St. Brendan, the Patron Saint of Kerry, the county we were driving through. This St. Brendan was quite the adventurer and in his little boat traveled to American before Columbus. Image that!

Our next stop was on Valentia Island to visit the Skellig Experience. This facility is a museum, theater, cafe and gift shop to help visitors learn about the Skelligs.

There are three islands off the coast of the Iveragh Peninsula which the Ring of Kerry goes around. These are very rugged peaks coming out of the ocean. The largest of these is called The Great Skellig or Skellig Michael. This island seemed the perfect place for monastic monks to live in solitude and draw closer to God. Overtime they constructed three stone step paths up the sheer rock faces of this island. They constructed a monastery complex which eventually included dwelling places, a large and small oratory and a medieval church with cemetery. Further up the face of this imposing rock was an even more secluded spot where a monk could go on his own for long periods of solitude. Only when the seas allow is there a boat to take tourist to the islands where they may climb Skellig Michael at their own risk. Fortunately, the seas were not in good humor when we visited the Skellig Experience. Small Skellig is a bird sanctuary and thousands of birds reside all over its rock face. These pictures were on the back of a book about the Ring of Kerry we bought while in Ireland.

Portmagee is across the channel of water there. After our tour of the Skellig Experience, I braved the wind to take pictures of the spot on Valentia Island and Portmagee.

Then we were off to complete the rest of the Ring of Kerry.

As we left the Ring of Kerry we entered the Killarney National Park. This park has three big lakes connected by rivers. There are also oak forests.

Before returning to our hotel we stopped at Muckross House. This was owned at one time by a very wealthy who really, really, really wanted a title. When Queen Victoria came to visit Ireland, he invited her to stay at his home. He borrowed great sums of money to refurbish his home and make it suitable for a Queen to stay for a week. Queen Victoria arrived with two fire brigades. She was deathly afraid of fire from a bad encounter with one as a child. She would not stay on the top floor of the home so three rooms on the main floor were converted as her apartment while she visited for only three days. She also insisted on a fire escape from this set of room so the owner of this home incurred more expense in building a metal fire escape out of the back of his home. Queen Victoria also arrived with her militia of 200 men and her own personal family and attendants. No small group of people. The end of story is this man did not get a title and he lost his home because of the debt he incurred. According to Mary, he was not at all liked by the people of Killarney.

This picture of the back of Muckross House shows the three rooms used by Queen Victoria. They are the main level and begin at the left side of the house with the room with four windows, then the room next to it with two windows and finally the room with the metal fire escape out the center set of window/doors.

Such amazing scenery this day. I expected green rolling patchwork hills with stone fences. I found some terrain just like out west in America, ocean scapes to rival any I have ever seen and more bogs than I ever imagined. One never tires of the old castles and towers that pop up all over. Such a long history in Ireland. We seem fascinated when something in the States was from the 1700's. Here we find things from 200AD. Just a wonderful day.