Wednesday

Ah, Limerick. The ride from Dingle (2.5 hours) was uneventful. Nice weather all day until dinner time when it started raining steadily. Limerick has lots of interesting history, but we’re just here for the night, so we won’t see King John’s Castle. the Treaty Stone, or the Greenway. We did King John’s Castle a few years back.

We will see the Absolute Hotel and the Locke Bar right on the River Shannon. Views of the Shannon River from the Locke Pub and views over Limerick from our hotel room at the Absolute. The Locke was a bar discovered by Elaine and her sister Caroline when they did a tour of Ireland some years back. We didn’t get food from the Afro Delight Authentic Nigerian takeaway, but I’ll bet it’s good.

Dinner was at Harry’s Bar on the River in the hotel. Goat cheese salad starter and risotto for Elaine. Lamb flatbread and beef Bourguignon for me. We both had ice cream for dessert. The wine was a pinot noir from France.

And that’s a wrap! We head home tomorrow. The blog will be back in September for our (almost) annual road trip to Depoe Bay, Oregon and Trinidad, California. Thanks to all for reading and for the comments, all of which are appreciated.

Tuesday

I said no post today. Surprise! But it’s very short. Rainy again, off and on.

We had a final session at Curran’s. All our beers were bought for us. We said our goodbyes to bartenders Johnny and Siobhan and to fellow customers Craig, Mike, Billy, Christine, Sean, et al. I surreptitiously left €50 with Siobhan to buy everyone a drink on us tomorrow (or whenever).

Dinner was at home, finishing off the frozen chicken Kiev with salad and potatoes.

Monday

Irish weather has returned full time. Periods of rain off and on all day.

Another quiet rainy day as we definitely power down. I dropped a last load of wash at the Cleaners. We ventured into Curran’s for an afternoon pint. And we had our last dinner out in Dingle for this trip. Tonight it was at Out of the Blue – seafood only and no fried food. We cancelled our previous reservation here back when I was under the weather. It’s not the best restaurant in Dingle, but it is perhaps the most difficult to get into. Reservations way in advance are required. (Almost all of dinner reservations were made on-line before we left home. It sure is easier than the old days when phone calls were required.)

We had Aperol spritzes. They were out of oysters! Damn them! Oh, well, we both had gambas (shrimp) and salad to start. Elaine had haddock while I had black sole on the bone. (I did a great job deboning my dish!) We shared a passion fruit panna cotta for dessert (no picture). The wine was a German pinot noir. We chatted with a young American couple to our left and two couples from the US on our right.

After dinner it was back to Curran’s. We had a long chat with a gentleman from Dingle who spends part of his year in Tipperary (yes, it’s a long way!) And finally home to bed.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is our last full day in Dingle. I may not post, but I will post on Wednesday from Limerick where we will stay one night before catching our flight back to the USA on Thursday.

Sunday

Sun, clouds, rain; repeat indefinitely. That was today’s weather. We, of course, can’t complain about a spot of rain after our three weeks of Irish sunshine.

Pretty boring day as we wind down. We had lunch at the Fish Box and we enjoyed a pint at Curran’s. And we met our friend Susan for a drink at O’Flaherty’s. No music at O’Flaherty’s on Sunday night, so we had a quiet chat and said our goodbyes to Susan.

Flowers

There was no vase in the house when we arrived way back when, so we bought one and bought flowers at SuperValu to fill it.. You saw the flowers on the table in some of the dinner shots. Some of those three-week-old flowers still fill a wine bottle in the fireplace. And we new flowers on the table. Lilies?

Lunch

There was a waiting list at the Fish Box for lunch, so we hung around at St. Mary’s across the street. From the steps of St. Mary’s you can see the Fish Box, the Blue Zone pizza place (we’ve never tried it but it is rumored to be pretty good), and, of course, Dick Mack’s (which looks blurry in the photo – bad photography). Does hanging around St. Mary’s count as going to church on Sunday? At the Fish Box we both had their signature fish box – fish and shrimp and calamari and chips. It, of course, also served as dinner for today. So much food!

That’s an old menu. The prices have gone up. What hasn’t?

Saturday

We’re starting to wind down as we approach three weeks in Dingle. We don’t leave until Wednesday morning but we seem to have done much more than usual because of the unusually beautiful weather (or we’re just getting older). Today was a more typical Irish day. Traces of sun, mostly cloudy, and significant amounts of rain. So we pretty much just hunkered down for reading (Elaine) and naps (me). I did make it to Curran’s for a short session in the afternoon.

Tonight we had originally planned on eating at home, but we realized that we hadn’t been to Fenton’s, another old favorite. So I booked a table and off we went at 7:00 pm for dinner. Kir Royales. Calamari to start for Elaine; oysters for me. Hake once again for Elaine (all the fish is sooo good right off the boat); I enjoyed a perfectly cooked (rare) Angus beef steak. We split a pavlova for dessert. We started eating some courses before I remembered to snap the photo. Ooops. Sometimes I completely forget.

After dinner we went to the Dingle Pub to hear some music. The band was good, but it wasn’t our style. Saturday night music is more geared to the students at Sacred Heart University than to old fogie tourists. We had one drink and headed home. You may remember previous trip visits to the Dingle Pub featured dancing by the owner’s son, David Geaney (five time world champion Irish dancer). We saw David perform in Phoenix at the Irish Cultural Center just two months back when he was on his American tour. Alas, at the end of his tour he suffered a knee injury, so he’s not performing nightly at the pub. But he is working – tending bar and serving tables in the restaurant. We didn’t see his sister Suzy this trip – she is busy at home now with her two kids, the youngest being just 11 months old. Dad Tom was tending bar nightly as per usual. Here’s a old photo of Tom and me taken in 2016:

Some night scenes on the walk. We’ve never been to the Chinese restaurant. See Elaine walking ahead of me?

Sunday Morning

As usual, I am posting this in the morning after the day being highlighted. The sun was out when I woke up. Then we had rain, The resultant rainbow looked much better in person than it shows up in the photo from our bedroom window.

Friday

At last, an Irish weather day. ‘Twas a soft day:

A soft day is a description of the weather, and is probably very unique to the Emerald Isle.
It is a day when the precipitation is a cross between mist and drizzle and is sometimes referred to as “mizzle”. The rain does not fall to the ground in heavy droplets, but seems to hover and linger in the air. Yet this rain is too heavy to be classified as mist, and it is not vaporous and rolling like fog. It only takes a few minutes outdoors on a soft day, to be soaking wet.
A soft day is refreshing, and can be unexpectedly bright. The air is crisp, but not sharply cold. It’s just damp, damp, damp.
It’s not exactly rain. You can’t really sea any raindrops.
It’s closer to a mist, a pervasive mist that clings to you, your clothes, your hands and the tip of your nose.
It seems to seep through everything, work its way under your clothes, leaving you feeling wet from the inside out.

We had a quiet day at home mostly. We stopped in at Curran’s to thank American ex-pat Craig for the lovely books (pamphlets) that he gifted us. He wrote them and they try (and succeed) in describing the unique Irish experience of the pub. They will be kept as treasures of our times in Dingle.

We did manage to get out for dinner at Ashe’s. It’s nice to show up on the right day, the day of your reservation. The proprietress, Sinéad, wasn’t there on our first visit (off on a trip to Spain with her father and daughter). She remembered us well from previous years and we had some good conversion (and after dinner Amaretto’s on the house). After Aperol spritzes, I had Gambas Pil-Pil (garlic and chili shrimp) for my starter and a Crab Trio (three different and delicious crab cakes, two hot and one cold) as my main. Elaine had Goat Cheese for her starter and Shrimp Risotto for her main. The wine was a French Beaujolais.

Then it was off to O’Flaherty’s for a last listen to Fergus’s music. As usual, he played six or seven different instruments and sang several songs. This time he played the bodhrám drums while singing the Foggy Dew, a song commemorating the Easter Rising of 1916. I recorded (part of) it below, complete with pub noise and possibly our voices talking – and I didn’t stop at the right time so there is extraneous noise at the end. We also made a new friend who took our picture.

Thursday

OMG, another perfect weather day! The weather situation will, however, be taking a serious turn come tomorrow. We are about to see the real Ireland!

Taking advantage of the good weather, we took a little ride. First stop was at a cemetery – the very new cemetery at Lispole. If you have to be dead, it seems like a nice setting to be buried at. It’s a sad cemetery though, because several of the graves are of children who died way too young. The cemetery also has lots of rules. See Elaine? She’s alive.

A bit further down this narrow side route are the ruins of Minard Castle. It’s an unassuming little castle in a beautiful setting.

Nearby the castle is a well, St. John’s Well, also described the above link.. People come here to leave prayers for loved ones who have died. The waters are also supposed to relieve headaches. I wonder if it works for hangovers. Fortunately, we don’t do hangovers anymore.

Then it was down more narrow roads to Annascaul Lake.

Dinner was at Ashe’s Restaurant. Well, I thought it was, but we were a day early. Bad on me. So we’ll be back there tomorrow night. We had a walkabout the harbor area and a drink at Murphy’s Pub while figuring out our next move. See Elaine with the tribute statue of Fungie (RIP), the dolphin that made Dingle famous.

The next move turned out to be an unexpected return to the Asian themed Fish Factory. I had Yellowfin tuna tartare and shrimp coconut Curry. Elaine had pork belly dumplings and a delicious seafood burger and chips with a side of kimchi.

We finished up the night at Curran’s for drink and craic.

Wednesday

Beautiful sunny day.

We did nothing.

No pictures

See you tomorrow.

Tuesday

All good weather things must come to end. It was cloudy when we awoke. The sun peeked out a couple of times during the day, but it was generally a cloudy day with one or two showers. Not a washout by any means, though.

Laura was coming in to clean and change the sheets and towels for the second time. So we got out of her way by taking a ride to Tralee. Tralee is a very blue collar town but it has a some very redeeming assets: a beautiful church, a wonderful town park, and a couple of good places to eat. More about those below. It also has a very good museum, but we’ll be giving that a miss this trip. And it’s also host to the annual Rose of Tralee Festival (in the town park). If you don’t want to see church pictures or flower pictures, you can skip to the end. Links to these places as they appear below. Fair warning: Elaine did NOT wear her new earrings to Tralee. Maybe at dinner tonight? OK, here come the pictures (lots)

Click on the galleries below to bring up scrollable windows with full size pictures – the gallery previews may show just thumbnails of the pictures. By the way, the pictures look much better on a tablet or a computer than they do on your phone. Just saying.

Ok, for some reason Tralee seems to be full of barber shops. This gallery is for my friend, Bob.

There’s a mural here dedicated to our (and your) old friend, Tom Crean. It includes the help wanted ad that Shackleton posted looking for staff for his Antarctic expeditions.

Another pub, the Slieve Mish, also has a very well done mural. The pub is run by an ex-All Ireland footballer. Slieve Mish Mountains, is a predominantly sandstone mountain range at the eastern end of the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry. We’ve been there.

Random pics around Tralee. The Pikeman Statue in the center of Tralee is a memorial to the men who fought and died during the 1798 Rebellion in Ireland. There were lots of rebellions.

Now to the church, St John the Baptist. Striking inside and out. Elaine lit candles.

Next, Tralee Town Park in three parts. Part one is everything roses. We have been here several times but usually there are one or two roses in bloom at most, Today there were tons. The town maintains the park and they grow literally dozens of types of roses (as you’ll see – some labelled, some not.) See Elaine chatting up one of the grounds keepers.

There are more than roses here including some interesting trees.

And finally the park is home to the Rose of Tralee Festival. Boston usually sends an entrant. Boston folk, recognize any names from entries in the 1960’s?

Lunch was at Der O’Sullivan’s Deli right downtown Tralee. Nice place. Toastie for Elaine. Beef stew for me. The photo above our table shows downtown Tralee from days past.

Whew! Long day.

And dinner tonight was our second visit to the Half Door. Elaine wears her birthday earrings! I am not wearing earrings. Food was grand, as per usual. Oysters, of course, for me and Shrimp Wontons for Elaine to start. Brill (on the bone) for me; hake (like cod or haddock, not on the bone) for Elaine. No dessert. Wine from New Zealand. All superb.

Richie and Dreams of Freedom, our favorite band, were playing at the Dingle Pub. We stopped in to say hello to Richie, but it was teeming busy, so we decided not to stay. Instead we stopped up the street at Curran’s for a much quieter drink with good conversation and craic – no music happening here. Johnny, another old friend, was bartending. Here’s his picture with some nice girls visiting with family from Connecticut and North Carolina respectively. I chatted up the girls; Elaine chatted up the locals. A good time was had by all. Oh, I did manage to spill a full beer, fortunately getting no one wet.

Finally, bed!

Monday

Welcome back to the Irish Riviera – sunny and warm – again! A beach day. So we went to Inch Beach after crackers, cheese, grapes, and chutney for lunch at home. Inch Beach is circled on the map below.

Perhaps the most famous of the Dingle Peninsula’s beaches, it’s a beach that is its own peninsula sticking 5 km out into Dingle Bay. It’s been a centerpiece for many movies. Firstly it was the setting for The Playboy of the Western World (1962). It also plays prominently in Excalibur (1981), Far And Away (1992 with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman), and most famously for Ryan’s Daughter (1970) which won the Academy Award for Cinematography. You previously saw pictures of the “Ryan’s Daughter Beach” which is on Slea Head Drive nearer to Dingle Town. But portions were also shot at Inch Beach.

Here’s a picture potpourri. I never saw so many people or cars at Inch. Still, the beach is so big, it still seems almost empty. It’s 5 km long. But it’s the weather. Usually it’s been cloudy, windy, rainy, or cold. Or all of the above. Today was gorgeous. Not great waves, but there was a surfer or two. Several pictures of Elaine. One shadow picture with a heart drawn by Elaine. In the past we have seen horses on the beach, but none today. Love the cloud reflections in the low tide waters.

Then it was home again. We made a brief stop at Supervalu for bread to go with tonight’s early dinner at home. Pasta, salad, bread, and wine. It was early because tonight we have plans!

After dinner we headed into Dingle to St. James tiny church. It’s Church of Ireland (Anglican) and much smaller than the grand Catholic St. Mary’s. But tonight it is the venue for a concert featuring Dingle-born singer Pauline Scanlon. She’s well known and well regarded throughout Ireland and beyond. We’ve heard her before in Dingle and really like her voice. She was accompanied by three other musicians: Gerry O’Beirne (guitar & vocals), Tommy O’Sullivan (guitar & vocals), and Eion Duignan (pipes & low whistle). Tommy and his wife own Sullivan’s Courtyard Pub in Dingle. We’ve been there, but not often. It has very low ceilings and I risk permanent brain damage if I’m not careful. Eion plays the Uilleann Pipes (as well as the low whistle) – it’s the national bagpipe of Ireland. He also drinks at Curran’s Pub, one of my hangouts. Alas, no photos or recording allowed, so no pictures. I’m sure that the links above will allow you to listen to some of the musicians music. But just in case, here is Pauline singing the Old Churchyard, one of her signature songs.:

Here’s Eoin playing the Uilleann Pipes.

St James Church is literally next door to the Dingle Pub, so after the concert we stopped in for some liquid refreshment and some more music. Then it was home to bed.