Greg and Deb's Travel Blog

Wow, what an amazing time. Deb and I are home now, and feels a bit strange. First night in our bed, with our pillows, in our apartment in Adelaide, how can that feel strange?

There was no time condition on breakfast,  hey, no need to get dressed for breakfast (mmm, too much information? , lol), no plans for sight seeing, nothing new to explore, no dinner reservation to be made, all our stuff is here. Yes, it was strange to wake and realise we are home. ?Yes, so much is different, but the same! 

And so our adventure draws to a close, it has been an amazing holiday.

We both struggled to sleep much last night, but we eventually got a few hours.  We had a late breakfast and then packed our bags for the last time this trip.

We had 15 days in Ireland, it was a long held, dream for me to be here.  It is a beautiful country, full of fabulous scenery, history, culture and people.

A lazy no travel anywhere day, no car day. Just us sort of day. Exploring things we missed when we arrived here in Dublin.  

We left the hotel around 10:30am, I did say it was a lazy day!, and walked to St Patrick’s Cathedral, founded in 1191. It is currently the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland. I say currently on purpose, because over its existence the Cathedral has seen its denomination change a few times, particularly between the 16th and 17th centuries reformation period. It has remained Anglican since William of Orange’s victory at the Battle of Boyne. The Cathedral has a high ceiling supported by huge pillars either side of the naïve, and it has exceptionally intricate stained glass windows. There is lots of history within its walls.   There is a display about Johnathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, he was Dean of the Cathedral in 1714-1745. The south transept is used for a learning space and other areas have various displays. I like the display that outlined the origins of the saying “ to chance your arm”, a brave offer of trust at the time.

Martin picked us up a little before 9:30 to start our last day of our Little Gems Tour. The skies were a little cloudy with the sun peaking through.

I forgot to mention this in yesterday’s blog. We finally got to try the local lobster last night at dinner. It was small by home standards, but sweet and juicy, delicious. I am disappointed it took so long to try it. It was a very tasty meal, we shared 4 entrees – mussels, prawns & squid, crab and lobster, with a simple salad of mixed leaves.

We started our day with a 1.5 hr drive through the countryside to the furthest point we go to today. When we got to Lough Hyne the track for the viewpoint we were going to was shut off due to fallen trees. So our hike to see Lough Hyne went to plan B. Besides the tree issue,  low cloud and fog might have made seeing things a bit of a challenge. Martin did a quick bit of research and found a road and track that took us close to the mouth, this became our Plan B. It entailed a drive to near the mouth of the Lough. Another tricky one lane road two way traffic, with no built-in passing points just to make things even more interesting.

We woke to beautiful blue skies and sunshine. A little cloud drifted in but it had the makings of an amazing day to do the Ring of Kerry.

We drove from Dingle along the coast to Inch Strand Beach. Funny thing about that name, in Gaelic Inch means Strand, so it is Strand Strand Beach or is that Inch Inch Beach? It is the second most popular surfing beach in Ireland. There wasn’t much surf around but there was a surfing school in operation down on the beach.