DAY TWELVE
WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 2019
FROM County Kerry TO COUNTY CLARE, WITH THE RIVER SHANNON IN THE MIDDLE
Today was a day on the road as we headed from County Kerry up to County Clare. It was raining, and I was feeling a little bit motion sick (and let’s be honest, had a bit of Irish flu after the previous night haha), so failed pretty hard on the picture-taking front. But will recap as best as I can thanks to internet photos.
The morning started with a quick stop in the little city of Tralee where a few of us popped into a café for coffee and a scone. And where Billy kindly sorted my euros and pounds coins in about five seconds after I had been struggling with a mix of change in my wallet since Northern Ireland. (Why didn’t I ask sooner?? 😄)
Thank you irelandbeforeyoudie.com for this picture of Tralee.
After hitting the road, we ended up at the Tarbert Car Ferry, a very convenient way to cross the wide River Shannon to get to County Clare.
The top two photos are from StayinKerry.com, and the bottom is from Sleeping Giant Studio on YouTube. Cool ferry, but it definitely didn’t look this clear on our rainy day!
Just across the river, we stopped in the little town of Kilrush for lunch at Crotty’s Pub, where I had a particularly fantastic Cajun chicken wrap. (Who knew Ireland was so into Cajun chicken! It’s on menus all over the place.)
Back on the road, we stopped in the seaside town of Lahinch to stretch our legs and have some ice cream at O’Connors (go figure on the rainy & windy day, but it sure was good ice cream) before continuing on to our destination of Doolin.
Photo from O’Connors Facebook page
As it turns out, it got SO foggy, so we were all very thankful we were in the hands of Paddy who was such a great driver! That amount of fog and these winding, narrow roads would be a recipe for disaster in less capable hands. We couldn't help but applaud every time he successfully squeaked past another tour bus coming from the opposite direction.
We drove past Lahinch Golf Club where the fairways were so bumpy with little rolling hills! Clearly a challenging but very cool course to play with dramatic and varied scenery. (Sunny day photo from The Wandering Golfer.)
Doolin is tiny, so our group was divided into two different B&Bs for the next three nights. When we arrived at ours, O’Connor’s Guest House, I suddenly remembered I could take pictures, as there was the most adorable baby horse walking around with its mom outside. 😍
Tonight we enjoyed a leisurely informal group dinner at the local pub Fitzpatrick’s before being treated to a public performance by Harmonious Wail. It was great to watch the locals curiously gather to see the band, as they probably don’t get a lot of gypsy jazz in a pub that’s used to fiddles and whistles.
Apologies that this cuts off a spilt second before Maggie starts singing! My bad!
After dinner and music, we walked around the town a bit (“town” is generous, haha) and a few of us decided to head back to the B&B where I grabbed the owners’ guitar to accompany a little informal group singalong… that eventually evolved into a full traditional music jam session when some of the other musicians in our group got back after a night out at the pubs.
