June 11 - Back to London - Journey near the end

We did get out early and to Cork on time for our flight to London, Heathrow airport is an amazingly busy place... Internation departures about every minute and all types of people and languages there. Got the bus to our hotel, then took the 81 bus down to Hounslow to shop a bit, but it was a busy crowded not so nice neighborhood so we cut it short came back and ate at the hotel, now getting early to bed got a 6:45 am Uber scheduled, it's only 1.4 miles to the airport terminal 3 but they say allow 3 hours and we leave at 9:15 so... well 5:30 is early enought! OK goodnight and thanks for reading, we'll be home tomorrow evening. Look forward to my own bed again.

June 10 - Tralee to the Dingle Peninsula and

Last day, we fly back to London from Cork tomorrow morning, about 11:45 and it's 65 miles or so we will be up early for a change and out the door about 8. So it will be an early night. Today tho, we drove the Dingle peninsula past town of Dingle which was good shopping area touristy we stopped looked in a couple woolen mill shops but no sale, almost but the one sweater M liked most had a flimsey zipper on it so maybe better luck tomorrow. Then it was up to Fahan where those beehive shaped stone huts are, they date back oh to about 2,000 BC people were living there in caves and eventually they came up the hill built these round stone forts with the huts inside, the one we saw had 5 hut dwellings inside the stone circle, they kept their livestock in there too for protection from rustlers and wild animals... all done without mortar, they just stacked the rocks one atop the other edging in a little each time til a single stone covered the hole at the top, and that shape kept the water out. Pretty amazing.

Otherwise the sights of Dingle peninsula were pretty spectacular again, long misty mountain vistas ending on a bay or the ocean, with islands in the distance or a sandy beach or rocky outcropping or cliffs... and there were hundreds and hundreds of white sheep dotting the hills everywhere. So we did carry in asian food from Rose Garden it was good and we are all ready set to get on to Cork and back to London tomorrow, just staying in a Heathrow airport area hotel and maybe a little shopping Thursday morning we head back across the north atlantic to home, by way of Charlotte. In the morning theres a shopping place Blarney woolen mills we hope to stop at, they open at 930 and our flight isn't til 1145 and it's 30 minutes to the airport so we should have a spare 20-30 minutes if we get up early and out on time. Lots of pics to post maybe tomorrow night i'll be able to catch up, if not i'll do it on the long flights back Thursday! Be good to see my own bed again.

June 9 - Tralee to Fenit and Ardfert

Tralee town center has numerous shops of all manner, tho it seems pubs outnumber everything else, live music on the street here and there and lots of the pubs offer live music every night, tho variety and quality vary widely, we decided not to do any pub trip after our Edinburgh experience oh once was enough. I have been picking up a regular pint of Guinness for evening time and that's good enough. I went to rent a bike but it's only for the day, not 24 hours, and as it was nearly 2 oclock when i got there i would have to be back by 445 so decided no not worth it, and besides, it was 59 degrees they say, but it sure did not feel like it wind howling in off the ocean, well actually Tralee Bay.

So we took a little drive to see the greenway route, figured it would go along the cost the 7 miles or so.. but no it was not near the coast at all, it was a scenic drive tho glad we saw it, so iffy about the ride for tomorrow. We then drove north to Banna Beach, supposedly the finest beach in Ireland, which is saying something because it's an island with beaches all around, but yes it was quite nice the pics don't do justice. Surrounded by tall grass covered dunes, it was so windy sand was blowing up off the beach across the parking lot, and it was on M's side of the car she could not even get out of the car the wind was so strong. I got out for a few seconds to make a video for the kids... but not for long... a couple pulled into a parking space near us and got out, for about 2 minutes lol then they hightailed it back into their car.. yup it was kinda sunny 59 degrees but it felt like 45 with that wind. We did see a well insulated red headed woman come down to the beach and strip down to a one piece bathing suit, and get into the water for a few minutes, the lifeguard came down from his shack with his life saving gear, barefoot with a swimming suit and a hooded foul weather jacket... he watched her til she came out then went back to his post.

Ardfert was the town on our way back from the beach and there was a ruined old church (cathedral) there, we went in and got an orientation from the guide, it dated to the 12th century, burned ruined rebuilt a couple times and a lot of the stones were used for the above ground burials there, many are above ground cuz the ground is so rocky, lots of old tombstones. They had artifacts carved stones and things going back to about 800 ad they say... Brendan who was born about 400 a.d. or so sailed over and discovered Newfoundland so this about 1000 years before columbus "discovered" north america. It was a good full day and now we are down to our last day in Ireland tomorrow, with a promise of 65 degrees and sunshine....