After a very early start today, we’re having a (for us) late night. We flew from a hot Gatwick to a colder, cloudy Dublin. The good news is that each of our backpacks weighs just 8kg, so with a small bag each as well, we really are travelling light.
Our rental car is a Dacia, slightly bigger than our Mazda at home, even though we requested a small car. And then the assistant warned us about the narrow roads.
For lunch of course, we had to go Irish. A bag of cheese and onion Taytos was OK, but we probably didn’t need to consume the whole bag in one go.
Liesel drove from Dublin to about halfway to today’s final destination. We stopped at a place called Moneygall for a break and discovered that Barack Obama’s great-great-great grandfather had emigrated from here to the USA in 1850.
The Barack Obama Plaza had some food outlets and apart from the Taytos, we had coffee and a scone. They are very proud of their connection to the Obamas, there’s even an exhibition hall. It turns out that about half of all US presidents can claim an Irish ancestor.
I took over the driving for the last half of the trip. Narrow roads? We were on fantastic roads most of the way, motorways even. We didn’t even mind paying a toll on a couple of them. And as we went further and further south-west, the landscape became more and more green, verdant, lush, all those poetic words come to mind. And there are mountains in the distance too.
Although it wasn’t as warm here as it was at home when we left, the sky was blue, with a few clouds and the countryside really did look beautiful. This is what we came to see.
And then we found the narrow roads. The last few miles were mainly on single track roads, with the odd passing place. But, as on the big roads earlier on, there wasn’t much traffic.
Our Airbnb place is a bungalow in Milltown, near Killarney.
After a bit of a rest, we drove to Killorglin for a traditional Irish meal. In fact, we went to Sethu Curry House, as they had a lot of vegetarian dishes. An Indian restaurant, owned by a Malaysian and the waitress who served us is from Reading.
Eoghan, our host, came by for a chat and suggested some places that we should visit later in the week. An unusual name, but my Mum’s father was an Owen from Ireland, so I now wonder if his name was spelt the same way.
Mick and Liesel's Antics 