Ireland 2024: Days 1-3

I am in Ireland with a group of 20 friends and having a lovely time! We're here for a week and I thought I'd break up the trip a bit for posts.

We flew from Los Angeles to Cork via London on Saturday, June 29, arriving in Killarney the evening of Sunday, June 30. By late that night all 20 of us had arrived so that the fun could begin on Monday. After breakfast most of us headed to Ross Castle where we had a wonderful tour. The guide was amazing! We really got a sense of the history of the castle and town, but more importantly, the culture of the place. 

After the tour 4 of us walked through the National Park to the town of Killarney for a pub lunch. In the afternoon we hung out, read, napped, and wandered the grounds of the hotel, which is on a lovely lake. Monday night we all at dinner together at a fancy meal (I am so not a fancy meal person!).

Tuesday was touring day number 1. Our hostess rented a bus and driver/tour guide and we did the Ring of Kerry as an all-day affair. Wow. What a beautiful country. We saw beaches, cliffs, mountains, valleys, forest, and more. We stopped along the way for lunch, vistas, and to wander around in little villages. I love the rock walls that are all over the place.

Wednesday was tour day two and we went to Inch Beach (stunning with HUGE stretches of sand), the town of Dingle, and we saw a sheep dog competition/demonstration, which was really fun. Dingle is in a part of the country where the first language is Gaelic. Everything in Ireland is in both English and Gaelic, kids learn Gaelic up to age 17 in school, but there are part of the country where Gaelic is the main language and the English disappears.