Slea Head
Charles Lindbergh strained through the ocean mists to try and make out where he had hit land. He circled the Spirit of St. Louis over the land and sea until he figured out that he was looking at the Blasket Islands off Dingle Bay in County Kerry. Armed with that information, he laid a course for Paris and the rest is history.
With the expert guidance of our guide, Joe Joyce, we saw the same piece of land yesterday ,although not from the lofty perch of the Spirit, but from a small van/bus on the goat track that is called the Dingle Peninsula Loop. Giant buses now inch their way past stone walls beyond which are 500 foot drops into the churning Atlantic. I only found myself clutching the seat a couple of times as Joe maneuvered through impossibly small spaces. How the full size tour buses get through those spots is something only known to God and the drivers. Best it stays that way.
With the expert guidance of our guide, Joe Joyce, we saw the same piece of land yesterday ,although not from the lofty perch of the Spirit, but from a small van/bus on the goat track that is called the Dingle Peninsula Loop. Giant buses now inch their way past stone walls beyond which are 500 foot drops into the churning Atlantic. I only found myself clutching the seat a couple of times as Joe maneuvered through impossibly small spaces. How the full size tour buses get through those spots is something only known to God and the drivers. Best it stays that way.
Along spectacular views of the Dingle Peninsula coastline, we visited several ancient architectural sites including the Gallarus Oratory, the funny little beehive shaped building you see below. This building is at least 1,500 years old and totally original. It's built of slate pieces placed precisely and shaped to form a perfectly symmetrical building that doesn't leak and is one hundred percent original. So much for the Irish being ignorant peasants incapable of learning and lazy. Does this remind you of anything closer to home?
Earlier in the day we did our part to increase the U.S. trade deficit with a visit to Dingle Crystal, the craft glass business run by Sean Daly. We toured the Waterford Crystal factory and craft shop when we were in Waterford earlier. But we were distressed to find that most of the crystal they have for sale is actually made in Slovenia and a couple other Eastern European locations. We'd heard there was a crystal shop in Kinsale, so during our two days in that town, we visited the shop of Roland Daly, who just happens to be the nephew of Sean Daly in Dingle. We bought a gorgeous crystal bowl from Roland and became part of a long-running prank that the Dalys play on each other. Roland gave me a roll of a dozen Kinsale Crystal labels and asked me to sneak them onto crystal pieces in the Dingle Crystal retail shop downtown. Madlynn distracted the clerk and I pasted the labels over various Dingle Crystal pieces, after which I emailed Roland and told him the target had been handled. The Dalys practice the old style of crystal cutting which means they use a thicker piece of glass so they can do deeper cutting. Set side by side with a current Waterford piecer, the difference is stunning.
We ate another amazing Irish meal at Half Door, a 4 star restaurant in the center of downtown. I had a perfectly cooked Irish angus steak with garlic butter and various veggies while Madlynn had a sautéed pork cutlet with a rich, dark sauce. Then we hiked up the road a couple blocks to hear a traditional Irish music concert with guitar and Irish bagpipes (unlike the Scottish pipes, the Irish pipes do not require the piper to blow into a tube while playing, leaving the player free to drink, according to the fellow playing the pipes.
And even though we'd been in town 3 days, we started to run into people we had met earlier; the instructor/owner of the cookery school, a janitor in a church we visited to see the spectacular stained glass windows who turned out to be the husband of the front desk person at our B&B, the knitter from the farmer's market who was handling the door at the concert, etc. We very quickly were made to feel at home in Dingle and hated to leave this morning. Now we're are in Kilkee on the rugged coast of County Clare. Our hotel is the Bay View Hotel and there are two alcoves in the room, each with a comfy chair facing the bay where giant swells break against the reef, where we have each settled in with a good book and not the slightest intention to go out into the blustery, wet day. We have reservations for dinner downstairs at 6:30 and then we'll walk next door to the pub where they have live music tonight. We have a feeling that being over the pub may not be a big advantage tonight, but it's a small price to pay.