Killarney: Day 1

Like I mentioned before, Drew and I decided to take a little getaway trip to Killarney (in southwest Ireland) this weekend, and Kara joined us!  We wanted to drive the Ring of Kerry, which is a tourist trail along the Iveragh Peninsula with tons of pretty views, sights, castles, bed and breakfasts, and other attractions.  

We stayed in Killarney, and on Sunday we basically drove counter-clockwise down to Valentia Island back around through Kenmare, and back to Killarney.

We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning and hopped on a train, then another bus to get to our car rental place in Dun Laoghaire.  

Two ladies ready for adventure!

Testing out this whole driving-on-the-opposite-side thing.  Scary.

Feelin good!  We hope.

This is literally a picture of Kara saying a few Hail Marys before we pulled away.

A scenic and pleasant four hour drive later, we arrived!  We stayed at an ADORABLE bed and breakfast called Friar's Glen - the nicest people, lovliest (is that a word?) rooms, and the most delicious breakfasts you've ever had.

I should also note that Kara aspires to be an engagement photographer, so she took our fancy camera and went to town.  God love her.

Kara stayed in town, so we all got settled at our respective places and then headed over to Muckross House.  Muckross House is a beautiful mansion, built in 1843 for the Herbert family - Queen Victoria stayed here in 1861 which was evidently a huge deal.  It was later sold to Arthur Guinness, and then a wealthy Californian, and then was donated to Killarney National park.  We didn't pay for the tour inside, but walked around on the grounds outside.

It looks like it could be Pemberley, no?

The view from the lawn of the house.

There is a large, beautiful, well-known waterfall, that we were planning on driving to, but a couple who evidently had a tendency to exaggerate told us it was only "a 15-minute walk up the road".  They were liars but we are glad we were naive and believed them because we had a gorgeous hike up to the waterfall.

You walk through a wooded path, and then it opens into these beautiful fields full of cows, long grass, and mountains.  The sun also came out so we couldn't have asked for a better opportunity to hike!

Torc Waterfall.  It's much bigger than it looks in this picture.   Beautiful!

Past the waterfall, you could climb a thousand million stone steps in hopes of seeing another magnificent view of the waterfall.  At least that's what we told ourselves.  We took the steps a long ways up the mountain but didn't see the waterfall again.  But we DID see some amazing views of Killarney National Park and the lake and the greenery that made it all worth it.

Like many of the pictures I'll post, the camera doesn't do the actual view justice.  Sigh.

We came home, showered, got ready, and went to have some drinks and eat dinner in town.  Everyone in the area must have been out because there were live bands playing Irish music, activities for kids, and even a fake wrestling match going on in the streets!  Very bizarre but very fun.

We went home at a decent hour and prepared for our long day of driving and sight-seeing!  The first day was definitely a huge success.  More to come for the rest!