Ireland #9 - Muckross and Killarney

After our visit to the 

Muckross Abbey,

we still weren't done.

We had stopped at Aldi to pick up some picnic foods.

We laid out a blanket and our feast,

crackers, pickles, salmon, turkey, brie, cheese, olives and feta

and I'm sure some things I'm forgetting.

A toast to the Celtic Adventurers!

I had to include my selfies of the day.

This picnic was the start of a favorite "lunch theme"

we found we loved having little picnics along the way.

But we didn't linger long as the bees found us, and especially liked 

the wine.  Couldn't let them get drunk, so we packed up and

went on to Muckross Cottage and grounds.

(Honestly, the guys were freaking about the bees, 

so we had to leave.  Ha ha!)

We took a horse and buggy ride around the grounds.

Our horses name was Rosie and the driver was 

Paddy O'Donoghue

Paddy and Rosie

Roxie with Rosie

 Me with Roxie

Here are some of the sights we saw on our buggy ride.

I'd tell you about the lake and the little castle out on that 

island, but Paddy had such a heavy accent that

none of us could understand half of what he said.

Factor in the accent and the fact that he was facing forward

and we were in the buggy behind him, and we didn't get 

as much information as we would have liked.

It was a beautiful ride though and all in all worth doing.

Celtic Adventurers on the buggy.

Ed sat up front with the other O'Donoghue.

Paddy was kind enough to take a group picture

for us at the end of the ride.

One thing I know I did hear and understand that Paddy 

said was that this church is St, Mary's and that it is the 

tallest church spire in Ireland.
Now as I write this, I looked up it's height, which is 

285 feet.  BUT I found that it is not the tallest,

it is the 3rd highest, with St. John's in Dublin as the 

highest at 308 feet.

Guess you can't believe everything the guides say, eh?

 

Even so it is beautiful and quite impressive.

We all walked into downtown Killarney, which wasn't far, 

to see some sights.

Although Killarney isn't a big city by our standards,

it was pretty good sized for Ireland, 

and very busy.

After a bit of walking around, Michael and I wanted a rest,

so we sat on a bench and the others did some exploring.

You never know where you'll find another American,

we struck up a conversation with a woman from Texas sitting

 on the bench near us.

It was fun to hear her perspective on things.

That evening we ate dinner at 

Murphy's which is the pub where we had been for music 

the night before.

Sadly we were pretty disappointed with the food.

This was where we found my least favorite 

fish and chips.

Did I tell you about my hunt for the best fish and chips?

I'll have to tell y'all about that one day soon.

After dinner, we headed back to the B&B for a relaxing evening.

Flowers of the Day

More beautiful hydrangea!

There is a lovely little cottage on these grounds,

it has been made into a little cafe and I didn't take pictures of it,

you can see the thatched roof of the cottage above in the 

church picture.

The flowers around this little cottage are just gorgeous

with many different colors.

Just take a look at these gorgeous hydrangea,

how could I NOT take pictures?

And that is exactly what I did,

until my camera battery died and that was the end of that!

Thanks for stopping in today to check out more about 

our Ireland trip.

I'll be back next time as we leave the Killarney for

Kenmare, Druid's View and a hike to a lighthouse

that didn't quite happen.