Coastal cliffs and Killarney (May 5|6)

Despite wishing we had more time in Clifden, we headed out back east via the winding highways, back through Galway (didn't find a Galway girl though, other than on the radio) before turning south and heading for the Cliffs of Mohr. Another drive down some narrow and winding roads (including one aptly called corkscrew hill) to a cheery traditional Irish folk CD we bought from the band the previous night brought us out to the cliffs. They are quite the sight to see. Even the visitors center was interesting as it is built into the hill. The only issue the cliffs was that all the people ignoring the posted warnings (and memorial to the people that have died at the cliffs) made Alaina a little uneasy.

After a small lunch we hoped back in the car and made our way to Killarney down one of the motorways. It was a nice treat to be driving 120 km/hr on wide, 2 lane, and mostly straight roads again, even if the traffic was much heavier. The traffic became rather insane as we got to Killarney, especially for a small city of 17,000 people. Apparently we are in Killarney at the same time as a very popular annual rally (as in rally car racing) so the city was over flowing with small rally tuned cars. The sounds of turbos, supercharger, and a variety of overly loud mufflers (fatboys, cherrybombs, etc.) were everywhere, and crossing streets took forever as the drivers were constantly driving like they were in the middle of a race. We did eventually make it to our B&B, where we met Triona who provided plenty of good advice on the city and area and made some good recommendations on where to eat. We went out for a later supper and then showing our old age, decided to head back to the room rather than deal with the massive crowds of overly drunk 20 year old douche bags. We had planned on driving the Ring of Kerry, but our waitress the night before had told us that part of the ring (Moll's gap) would be closed to traffic as it was one of the rally courses. So instead we went out to the Dingle peninsula on Triona's recommendation. We drove through the local (and very beautiful) golf course before heading out to Inch beach - the first stop on the loop around the peninsula.

After a short walk along the beach we continued down the road stopping to wander the remains of an old settlement of bee hive huts before taking an extended walk along beautiful Slea Head beach. We found a little goat path of road to the remains of a small monastic settlement and the Gallarus Oratory - a small dry rubble masonry chapel that is over 1300 years old.

We finished up the loop around the peninsula, arriving in the town of Dingle where we stopped for lunch (and had our first taste of Murphy's stout - so good) and did a tour of the aquarium, arriving just in time to watch the penguin feeding. We headed back to Killarney via Conner's Pass, found a nice quite restaurant that actually had an open table for supper before retiring back to our room.