Cleaning Day, so off to Tralee

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!