Dingle is filling up as we approach New Year’s Eve. Surprisingly, Dingle has become a New Year’s Eve destination for the Irish and the English and even beyond.

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From the Irish Times:

They know how to throw a party in Kerry, oft referred to as the Kingdom. From Killorglin’s Puck Fair to the Rose of Tralee, you can be guaranteed some serious devilment. Nowhere is this more true than in the coastal town of Dingle on New Year’s Eve. Perched on one of the westernmost tips of the country, there’s a wildness to the landscape and a wildness to the locals. NYE is celebrated in spectacular fashion, starting early in the evening, when it’s standing room only in the town’s pubs. Consider Dick Macks on Greene Street and Foxy John’s famous hardware store/bikeshop/pub on the Main Street to be at the centre of the action. At 10pm the entire town takes to the streets and heads down the hill to the harbour. There’s an impressive fireworks display from the pier (this can be seen from around the town, even if you don’t make it to the water’s edge). Then it’s back inside for a hot whiskey to warm your bones (they make a great drop in the local Dingle Distillery) before heading outside again to follow the Dingle Fife and Drum Band on its procession around the town. This culminates just before midnight, when thousands gather on the Main Street to ring in the new year.

Anyway, Saturday was a quiet day for us. Elaine took her walk in the morning. I stopped at the SuperValu for another bottle of Dingle Vodka. Of late going back to 2012, Dingle has it’s own distillery, aptly named the Dingle Distillery, just at the edge of town. It started by brewing up Dingle Gin and has since expanded into vodka and three types of whiskeys. It is very highly thought of, and I can vouch that their vodka, whilst expensive, is deliciously good in gimlets. (I can’t find Rose’s lime juice like I use at home, so I use Robinson’s Crushed Lime & Mind cordial – very good!) .

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On Saturday night we decided to try a relatively new entry on the Dingle restaurant scene – the Random Restaurant. We arrived at 7:45 for our reservation to a bustling scene. We started with glasses of champagne – what a surprise. Notice the Christmas ornaments made by one of the staff – Christmas trees made entirely of pasta! Then we both had seafood chowder for starters and agreed it was the best we have had in Dingle – high praise indeed. Elaine had hake, a haddock like fish, for her main while I had the 1/2 duckling. Excellent and plentiful food! That duck had to be a fat critter when he gave it up to be my dinner. No room for desserts.

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We stopped in at the Dingle Pub to see old friend Richie O’Brien of Dreams of Freedom, an excellent Irish Rebel Band. He wasn’t starting until 10:30 PM, so we just chatted a bit. He plays at 9:30 on Sunday and we may see him then. We also stopped at O’Flaherty’s (where we had parked the car), but there was a private party going on.

Tomorrow is another day – see you then.

Some replies to some of the comments people have made – we read and appreciate them all!!:

• Yes, I am feeling better. Good, in fact. No more bloody noses since that first day last Saturday. Elaine visited the local Medical Center and asked if they could do a cauterization (in case I needed it). No go. That would require a trip to Kerry General Hospital in Tralee. That’s about a 40 minute ride away. Hopefully I won’t need to visit. Fingers crossed.
• We return home on January 4th. On the 3rd we will drive to Dublin and stay overnight near the airport. I hope we get the Ducati Suite again. We couldn’t really enjoy it last time because Elaine didn’t have her suitcase yet. We didn’t check in until after 10 PM and we left right after we retrieved the errant bag from the airport. (I will point out that we have never flown British Airlines without some major issue or other. But that’s another story.)
• The Galloway cattle are called Belted Galloways (or at least we call them that). They originated in Scotland, but we have encountered them around the world on our travels.
• Mianne: GREAT pictures from Puerto Rico. We couldn’t be in more different places. Hope you are having a great time.
• Happy Christmas and Happy New Year back to all who have sent similar wishes our way.

Friday was very Irish, weather wise. Clouds, light rain off and on, fog. The whole Irish thing. We had a very quiet day. It ended on a high note with a grand dinner at our favorite Dingle restaurant – the Chart House. It has no connection with the US chain. Jim and Susan are the proprietors and are now good friends. We have been dining there since the late 1990’s. After Kir Royales, Elaine had Dingle Bay Seafood Chowder with croutons and a dash of citrus oil followed by the Salmon which was the special fish of the day. I had Croquet of Skeaghanore Duck with Confit Leg, Pak Choi, and Date Jam (OMG!!!) followed by the other special, West Kerry Rack of Lamb. For dessert Elaine had a trio of ice creams with praline sauce and I had the scrumptious flourless chocolate cake with ice cream. The wine was a German Pinot Noir that was quite good. (You almost never see any California or other US wines on menus in Ireland. Lots of wines from Australia, South Africa, France, Germany, and Spain.)

Here are some pictures from dinner and another round of Dingle Pub fronts.

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Dingle Pubs – Part Three

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Best weather day yet. No rain until at night, still relatively mild, and we even had a sun sighting or two. That’s rare for Dingle at Christmas time.

Elaine took her morning walk and we had just yogurt and granola for breakfast. Then we took Grom out for a spin around Slea Head Drive, Ireland’s prettiest drive. It’s magnificent when the sun shines brightly, but it’s beautiful any time. One advantage to seeing it now is that there are no tour buses on the road. Lunch was at John Benny’s Pub (no relation to Jack). Dinner was at home – leftover steak, Rogan Josh, and veg. And wine, of course. And some more of those delicious mini mince pies with whipped cream for dessert. After dinner we wandered downtown for a walkabout and some drinks (Guinness for me; Hot whiskeys for Elaine) Pictures will tell the story.

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A Drive Around Slea Head

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Lunch at John Benny’s

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Cocktails at Sunset (4:30 PM)

Downtown for a Few After Dinner

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The Pubs of Dingle (Part II)

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Christmas Day is Dingle’s quietest day of the year, so there not a lot to report. We slept late. Elaine made breakfast. The eggs in Europe taste so much better than at home. And we had rashers of bacon from Micilín Muc (Mikey the Pig). Yummy

After breakfast we took a long into town one way and back over the hill past the house we will be staying in come April. It was mercifully dry. In fact it hasn’t rained much at all save for our first day here. And it’s relatively mild – temps in the mid 40’s. Everything in Dingle was closed, as expected, except for St Mary’s Church, so we had a look around and lit some candles.

A Walk Through Dingle Town

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We had cocktails in front of the tree and opened the presents that Santa left. A 2019 Dingle calendar for me. And two sets of string lights from Grainne’s shop for Elaine that she wanted for Christmas 2019 in Scottsdale.

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Dinner was at home. Beautiful hand cut strip steaks from Mr Kennedy’s. Potatos au gratin. Locally grown carrots. And a nice bottle of French pinot noir. Alas, there are no local wines in Ireland, but we make do.

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Since I have a bit of a bug, it was off to bed early for a long night’s sleep.

Wren’s Day (Boxing Day, St Stephen’s Day)

Still a bit under the weather, but I soldiered on as best I could. I stopped in SuperValu in the morning for some nice cheese and crackers and grapes for tonight’s dinner. Elaine made hamburgers for lunch and I had a last nap before we headed into town.

I’ll let pictures tell the story. We had drinks, as usual, in O’Flaherty’s and the Dingle Pub. We also stopped in a new pub (for us), Nelliefreds. The bartender was a hoot and we made friends with a local named Neville who had previously worked in both O’Flaherty’s and the Dingle Pub. In fact, we talked to lots of nice people during the day. Sarcastic Trump masks are a very popular costume.

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It’s the day after Christmas. No post today. Will do a double post tomorrow.

It was overcast by dry except for brief sprinkles on Christmas Eve. We had a quiet day. Elaine went for a long walk early in the morning. While she was gone, I was doing the blog. Before she got home I drove into town to 1) pay Grainne the rest of the rent (which I forgot to do yesterday), 2) pick up an extra good bottle of wine for Christmas dinner and some more fire logs, and 3) have a walk around and start photographing all the pubs of Dingle.

We had lunch at home – sandwiches and potato crisps (not chips in Ireland!) I took a brief nap and then we went for another walk through town together. We stopped at the Dingle Pub for a pint and to wish our friends a Happy Christmas. Then we stopped at O’Flaherty’s to have a pint and to wish our friends a Happy Christmas. Good thing we only know people in two pubs.

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We had cocktails by our Christmas tree with a Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers Christmas CD playing. Dinners was home made Chicken Rogan Josh with peas. Delicious. For dessert we had scrumptious mini mince pies with whipped cream. Grainne gave us the pies (made by a friend of her’s). Even Elaine, not a mince pie fan, had to admit that these are delicious.

Then, guess what? BED! See you on Christmas. Happy Christmas to All and to All a Good Night.

The Pubs of Dingle Chapter One

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Click on the top of a pic in a gallery to bring up a scrollable window with full size pictures – the gallery previews show just cropped thumbnails of the pictures

Sunday – Typical Dingle weather – overcast and occasional rain, temperature in the upper 40’s. No sign of sun today. The long range forecast suggests we won’t see much sun while we are here.

Quiet day. We slept in, getting up at about 8:30 just as it started to get light out. In the morning we drove by the house we will be staying in when we return for six weeks in late April. It’s owned by the same lady, Grainne Kavanagh, from whom we rent this apartment at Water’s Edge House. She and her brother each owned two of the four apartments here. She has sold this one to help finance the house she is buying to live in herself. €435,000. She owns three other rental houses as well, and she owns and manages the Coach House, a high end interior design shop here in Dingle.

We stopped in at the Coach House to deliver Grainne a Christmas present – a nice bottle of French wine. Then we stopped in a few shops to pick up some items we needed and also returned to Garvey’s SuperValu to get all the provisions that we didn’t get on our first visit yesterday. Oh, and we visited Jerry Kennedy’s butcher shop where Mr. Kennedy cut me off two delicious looking sirloin strips that will be Christmas dinner on Tuesday. And we picked up some locally grown Maharee’s potatoes at O’Connor’s Fruit and Veg. Best tasting potatoes in the world!

We had lunch at home and rested up for dinner tonight and a visit to a pub or two. Today is the traditional Twelve Pubs of Christmas when Dingle’s young go out in groups to have at least one drink in twelve different pubs. Oh, to be young again. Elaine and I do the Two Pubs of Christmas – the Dingle Pub and O’Flaherty’s.

Dinner was at James Ashe’s Bar and Restaurant, one of our favorite spots. Read their history on the link. We started with Kir Royales. Then I had six local Glenbeigh oysters (scrumptious!) while Elaine enjoyed Gambas Pil-Pil (Shrimp Spanish style). For our mains, I had the special, Monkfish Scampi, while Elaine ate Roasted Local Scallops and Pork Belly. A great French pinot noir. No desserts.

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Then it was off to the pubs. A fun night. We were home by 11:00 and off to bed.

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First off, the camera has barely been touched. I think I’ve taken three pictures, so don’t expect a lot of pictures in this post.

Our flights were tiring. First was British Air from Phoenix to London Heathrow. It was as pleasant as a flight almost ten hours long can be. Premium Economy on British Air is not as nice as on Virgin Atlantic, but there was plenty of leg room (which is my major concern). We landed 30 minutes late due entirely to having had to circle Heathrow four or five times. Busy airport. (It was unrelated to the mess at Gatwick.) At Heathrow we had to transfer from Terminal 3 on arrival to Terminal 5 for our onward flight to Dublin. Our baggage was checked through, but oddly we had to clear UK immigration even though our onward destination was in Ireland. We would not have had to clear if our next destination was, say, Oslo.

There was four hours between flights but clearing immigration took close to an hour. Anyway, we had purchased lounge access in Terminal 5 and enjoyed free wine and food while we waited. After the short haul to Dublin, our problems started. Immigration was a breeze – I used my Irish passport for the first time. Baggage claim was anything but a breeze. My bag arrived. Elaine’s did not. Yikes! Anyway, the BA baggage people checked. Her suitcase was still in London and would arrive on the midnight flight.

We picked up our rental car without any issues. It’s blue (like our car on the Oregon/Washington/Idaho trip this past fall. So, the car’s name is Gorm. Gorm is Irish for Blue. Fiona is our SatNav (GPS) voice. We proceeded the two miles or so to the Crowne Plaza our checked into the Bucati Suite themed after Rosso Ducati motorcyles). Too late for food, but time enough for beers and wine in the hotel pub. Amazingly we met a young couple from Australia (he was Irish) who we discovered were related to Fergus O’Flaherty, the publican and lead musician at O’Flaherty’s Pub in Dingle.

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After a good night’s sleep we headed back to the airport to see if Elaine’s bag had arrived. After some minor problems connecting with the baggage people, I finally collected the bag, much to Elaine’s relief. Back to the hotel for breakfast in the club lounge and a quick change into newly arrived clothes, and then we were on the road to Dingle (a 4.5 hour drive).

On the drive we made two stops. First, a rest room and snack stop at Barack Obama Plaza in Moneygall. Second, an unexpected stop for my hour long nose bleed, an encore to my first ever nose bleed on the Monday before we left.

Finally we made it to Dingle, checked into our delightful Christmasly decorated apartment at Water’s Edge House. Then a shopping trip to SuperValu for groceries and a visit to the Dingle Pub for a short visit with our friend, publican Tom Geaney. Then it was back to Water’s Edge where Elaine cooked hamburgers with potatoes for a much needed and delicious dinner. Then bed! Back again tomorrow!

Next Thursday we head to Dingle for our Irish Christmas Déjà Vu.  Much will be the same as last year, but some things will be different on this trip:

• WordPress, the software with which I maintain the blog, has had a major upgrade.  It’s better but there are some differences.  Galleries are created differently, but they should look pretty much the same to readers.  I just have to be careful to construct the galleries properly.  Bear with me if I screw up.

• I have semi-retired my super excellent Canon G16 camera.  In its place I am now using a Canon G7X Mark II.  It has a larger sensor and theoretically, therefore, the pictures should be even better.  But there will be a learning curve.  Again, bear with me and hope for the best.

• I have to (by US law) use my US passport to enter and leave the USA.  But I can use my Irish (EU) passport in Ireland.  No big deal, but kind of cool.

• To avoid getting snowed in for five days in Boston like last Christmas, we’ll avoid the east coast altogether.  We’ll fly British Air non-stop Phoenix to London Heathrow and connect with a quick flight to Dublin.  We’ll overnight at the airport in Dublin and drive to dingle (4.5 hours) the next morning.  Same itinerary coming back, again with a night at Dublin Airport.

We leave on December 20th.  The blog will probably commence on December 22nd once we have settled in to our digs in Dingle.  See you then.