Ireland Day 6

Sunday April 4
Happy Easter, everyone! Our Easter present to you is the blog update for St Patrick's Day in Killarney! Who knew it was going to be so challenging finding the time + internet access to keep this going?! Working on the next installments in the background. The new plan is to write a description of activities, followed by the photos. That should speed things up somewhat, but photo selection, cropping and reduction to web size still takes some time, too - since we take 100 - 200 photos apiece most days. And then we have to figure out "now, which temple was that where I took that one?" Or what city we were in, for that matter, now that we have covered about 6 cities since we left Ireland!

Wednesday March 17

St Patrick's Day in Killarney, Co. Kerry, one of Ireland's most popular tourist spots. Today is a national holiday in Ireland, and about half the people we see are "wearing the green." There's a big St Paddy's Day parade this afternoon, but first we're traveling south of the city to explore Killarney National Park, the "Lakes of Killarney" and the Gap of Dunloe.


There are three Lakes of Killarney; Upper Lake, Muckross Lake and Lough Leane; we saw the latter two. We enter the grounds of the Muckross Estate on the shores of Lough (Lake) Leane. In the parking area are half a dozen "jaunting cars," called Kiljarvies - horse carriages available for hire through the park. The house and gardens are lovely, even though the rhododendrons and roses are not yet in bloom.













Driving deeper into Killarney National Park, we stop to take a short hike through the oak forest along an incredibly green moss-lined stream to Torc Waterfall. This is leprechaun territory, and Bob swears he saw one!












After another couple of stops to look down on the valleys and lakes below, we follow the road down into Black Valley, so called because it was the last part of Ireland to be electrified (1960s).
There are a few homes down here, but the floor of the valley is basically one big peat bog. Shane informs us that 10-15% of Ireland is actually bog land. Peat moss is a major export product, and throughout Ireland compressed bricks of peat are used as fuel.

The road curves up toward the Gap of Dunloe, where there's a great view down on several small lakes (rain notwithstanding) at - and on the other side of - the saddle between two valleys.














We head back to town and grab a bite at Laurel's, a pub along the parade route, just before the parade starts. Photo taken inside Laurel's beneath "Happy St Patrick's Day" sign is of Shane, our driver/guide.
















The parade-watchers were at least as interesting as the parade itself!