Day 13: Dingle Peninsula, Crean's Brewery, Killarney September 11

A one night stay in Ennis at the Temple Gate Hotel guaranteed that we would have an early start the next morning. By now we were pretty efficient at the pack-up-and-go routine. Our breakfast was a bit different in this hotel. The buffet was cold food, and the hot food was served. Unfortunately, the weather had stopped cooperating resulting in few pictures this day.  In spite of the rain, the green patchwork of Ireland's landscape was still visible through the bus windows even though there were constant raindrops running down the glass.

During our drive from Ennis to the Dingle Peninsula, our tour guide shared stories of Ireland. As we drove past Shannon, he talked about how Irish Coffee was first concocted on a cold, blustery day. A flying boat had departed from Foynes, the port on the bay southwest of Shannon, but, due to the storm, turned around and the passengers debarked. Cold and wet they entered the restaurant and requested warm drinks. Though the story we heard is a bit different from the ones online, it does appear that a man named Joe (Sheridan? - my notes have a different last name) created the first Irish Coffee by adding Irish whiskey to hot coffee. Reportedly, when asked if it was Brazilian coffee, he responded, "No, it's Irish coffee." Apparently, Irish Coffee is often attributed to the Buena Vista Cafe in San Francisco, which may, or may not, have been the first place in the U.S. to serve this drink. And, according to our tour guide's story, the retired chef from Foynes went to San Francisco to help with the recipe. More information here.

As we drove through Tralee, we were told about the Rose of Tralee International Festival as well as the history behind this festival. I won't go into the details since it is a lengthy story. You can read about it here.

We arrived in Dingle at lunch time and hurried to the closest restaurant. It was on this day that we realized we probably should have brought umbrellas. Our raincoats just didn't work as well as we had hoped. We grabbed a quick meal of soup and bread instead of the recommended fish and chips. I regret never trying fish and chips while we were there, but this day definitely called for warm soup! After our lunch, we spent our allotted time wandering in and out of small gift shops, trying to stay dry. My best outdoor shot of the day, though certainly not award-worthy, was a picture of the statue representing Fungie, the Dingle Dolphin. Since Dingle was our daughter's favorite town when she visited Ireland, I hope we can go back someday and spend more time here - without the rain! 

Our next stop was Crean's Brewery where we rushed inside out of the pouring, relentless rain. At least we were dry inside where we got an overview of the beer brewing process. I was most impressed with the decor inside the demo room and, since outdoor pictures were such a bust, took more than necessary inside. Of course, every brewery requires a taste of the beer and I was not reluctant to give it a try! It was good, but did not compare to Guinness!

Most of us on the tour were Americans, so we were well aware that it was September 11, though we were five hours ahead of the time in the U.S.  Unexpectedly our driver pulled over to stop for a moment of silence in recognition of the 9/11 terrorist attack on America. I honestly don't remember if this was in the morning or afternoon, but it was very touching. Since it was raining, we stayed on the bus over-looking a landscape that was beautiful, even through the raindrops. 

We ended our day checking in at the Killarney Towers Hotel in Killarney. After dinner, the rain had let up, so Bob and I decided to head out to to find a pub. We were quite lucky to find live music that started earlier than the usual 9 - 10 p.m. at The Killarney Grand Pub. We stayed long enough to have a Guinness and hear some typical Irish pub music.  

Surprises/Cool Stuff:

• Many people in Ireland are done with work at 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. on Fridays (Told by our tour guide who often followed his words with, "believe it or believe it not," so I won't attest to this statement as true.)

• Milk tank trucks are called "cool tankers." I did notice that most of the milk tankers I saw were smaller than the ones we have in NY and Vermont, I'm guessing because of the narrow roads and small farms. 

• Ryan's Daughter and Far and Away were both filmed on the Dingle Peninsula. I think we passed Inch Beach, one of the filming locations for Ryan's Daughter. But, the weather, the rain spattered windows, the lack of pictures - I'm not sure I remember correctly. I do remember seeing a nice sand beach at one point on our trip!