Day 4 - Ireland Adventure

Kilkenny to Kenmare

I am familiar with really old European things (as opposed to really old American things) from my College-in-Europe days, but it never ceases to amaze us when we can see, and touch, really, really old stuff...Like old castles, such as Cahir Castle near Dunaske and built in 1142.

and super old castles, like the Rock of Cahsel dating back to 1097 in Country Tipperary.

These were just our first two stops on Day 4, both before 10 am. We had an action packed day waiting for us so we started with the sunrise.

Since this was prime tourist season, and we were in the middle of the most sought after places to see in Ireland, we were making our way from Kilkenny to Kenmare, in the southwest part of the island, via the most remote roads we could find.

Side note: we've spent 10 years using our trusty, very portable, tripod to take pictures of the two of us...and I'm thinking we should have broken it out more than once on this trip. Selfie taking is not our specialty.

We sidetracked a little and made our way to Tipperary. Just because, well, it's a long way to Tipperary.

Then stopped in Killarney for sweater shopping (which was pretty miserable in 90+ weather).

And had lunch at....

QUINLAN'S SEAFOOD BAR!

Yes, apparently the members of Sean's family that stayed in Ireland were very enterprising. There are several of these restaurants scattered around the country. The server wasn't overly impressed with Sean's last name ("Quinlans stop by here all the time") but the food was good and it was a fun stop for us.

With our stomachs full, and nice warm wool sweaters packed on the back of the bike, we road to the Ring of Kerry, a 111 mile long road, famous for its incredible views and stunning scenery.

And Irish traffic jams

We stopped several times during the day, but our favorite stop was a waterfall in the Gap of Dunloe that you could barely see from the road.

So we took advantage of the complete un-crowdedness, isolation and cool water on such a hot day with a little dip...

...of our feet in the cold mountain water. It felt SO good.

By the way, motorcycle boots are really hot and heavy.

Back on the bike, we headed to our stop for the night.

Side note: I took a lot of scenic pictures on this stretch of the Ring of Kerry, and they all have this odd streak of light in them

I figure it's either an Irish Angel blessing us as we rode

or a Leprechaun showing us his pot of gold.

or just some gunk on my camera lens that caught the sun.

Anyway, back on the bike, we headed to our stop for the night at Davitts Hotel in Kenmare.

We have a very enjoyable evening walking around town, listening to music,

and visiting the Irish Establishments. We ended up stay up much later than we'd planned, talking to the locals, which made getting up super early (again) the next morning kind of painful.