Dingle, Ireland

Dane is getting more and more confident in his driving, and we finally figured out how to use the actual gps navigation function on the phone. (also, our car has a USB plugin that we can use to charge the phone while we drive, which is awesome, and I want one in my car). The sou of Ireland is so scenic, Dane almost missed the road on some curves. In his words, "Ireland is stinking adorable."


Another exciting thing about driving in this area is that you get to share the road with tractors and other farming vehicles.


Our drive took us through several charming little towns that we know nothing about.


The weather today was mostly great, but we kept driving (and later walking) through patches of rain. As we were driving, you could see these patches mixed in with shadows and sunlight, which made for a pretty cool visual effect. I don't know if that really gets communicated through this picture.





After a brief stop at our B&B to check in, we headed into Dingle, which is a little town on the peninsula above the ring of Kerry. Dingle is said to be one of the most beautiful areas in Ireland (in a tour book; I'm sure many places make that claim) and we enjoyed ourselves here. We started by just walking through the town.


There was a TINY little cheese shop that smelled so pungent and I loved so much.





Dane picked up some chocolate truffles with the hope that we'd find a coffee shop later.


I think there was a wedding or some other event at this church. There were lots fancily dressed (and cold-looking) people coming out of it.


Dane has pond envy. His dream is to have a pond on a property that he can stock with trout (I'm not sure how well that will work in Lake Forest...). Look at his smile. I love it.








He is also fascinated by these squash (I'm assuming) plants that have ginormous leaves. In this picture he was saying, "Look! I can put my head in it!" He thinks that it's the magical Irish rain that makes them grow like this, and maybe leprechauns.


After grabbing lunch in town (we've almost reached our fish and chips limit) we headed out to the shore to walk around the harbor. On the way, we stopped into a wool goods outlet, and I picked up a scarf that I purchased and wore in July (even though I know it's true, that fact boggles my mind).


Beautiful!



These houses were right on the beach and I want to own one one day.


At this point on this walk (which is listed on a map, so we weren't just wandering on private property) you had to climb over this wall.


The wall is probably there to make sure these cows don't leave. They were right where we needed to walk, and the one on the far right gave me the stink eye as we passed.






It was time for a cappuccino, so we went back into town to search for a cafe with wifi. What we found was an awesome music shop with a cappuccino machine and wifi. There were old and new instruments all over, and they were playing Celtic music, which they paused when a few musicians who were performing in concert there to it came in to warm up. The shop was cluttered with displays when we arrived, but they had cleared them out to make room for a small stage and about 30 chairs by the time we were leaving. The shop owner chatted with us a bit while they got ready for the show. I highly recommend it if you find yourself in Dingle wanting to just relax in a fun atmosphere for a bit.


When we walked back to the car, we took a detour down the dock.





Our B&B is adorable.














We went to one of 2 pubs in the town where we are staying. It's quite small, but had good food, drink, and community charm. We got to see some of the Olympic swimming, and watched as the rain poured right after we stepped inside.


After dinner, it was back to the hotel to cozy up to the fire and watch the Olympics with another family that is staying here.




After a little while, the family went to bed and a gentleman came out of another room to try to catch the weather news. He and his wife are visiting from Switzerland, and we struck up a conversation that lasted an hour or so about life in Europe and the US, languages and culture, and the courses in biology that he teaches at a university. My favorite part was when he was explaining where in Switzerland his hometown is. "it's in the far north of Switzerland, near where France and Germany meet. I can walk out for a drink in France and go home to Switzerland. The next night I can walk to Germany for dinner." This has been one of my favorite aspects of traveling: meeting and talking with people from all over the world.