Out of habit I woke up early – at 5AM. I snoozed for a little bit, but eventually got up and wrote yesterday’s blog post. It got to be about 8AM and Sharon was stirring so I told her it was 8AM and it’ll be a good idea to get ready.

I had my cameras charged and my GoPro’s suction cup for the car window ready. Sharon and I went downstairs to the dining room for breakfast. As with many hotel dining rooms in Europe, it was small and seating was limited. We grabbed a table near the breakfast bar which helped with refills of OJ and Apple Juice. The cups were one pint, about one step up from a shot glass – or about equal in size to the cups served on airplanes. I’ve never really understood European drink serving sizes. Obviously they have bigger cups for beer. Why not have these sizes available for other non alcoholic drinks?

We had two breakfast options – Irish Breakfast for 10 EURO or continental breakfast for 6 EURO. We didn’t really want to go all out with an Irish breakfast, but couldn’t find anything on the continential breakfast. So we compromised. Sharon had scrambled eggs on toast and Irish bacon (ham) while I had a cheese omelette and Irish Bacon (ham) and sausages.

Having completed our breakfast, Sharon headed to the room to pack the essentials and I headed to Centra convenience store to see if deli sandwiches were available. Sure enough they were so I got a roast beef and cheese for Sharon and a ham and cheese for myself…and water. I got back to the room and packed our lunch in my insulated bag.

We headed to the hotel’s parking lot and attempted to head out. The only problem was that one car beside us sat forever and we weren’t sure what they were doing. Eventually they did leave so we could leave (small parking lot)

The first village we went to was Ventry – a small village with some B&Bs and shops and a beach and mobile home park. Later we took a wrong turn and instead of driving the coastal highway we went inland past a castle ruin and made our way to Ballyferrier which had a small business district with a few restaurants – most notably a shop dedicated to Star Wars.

I mentioned to Sharon that we were way off course and we should go back to where we came to start the tour clockwise. We continued on our way with great views of the ocean and a few pull of spots. One just happened to be the Irish famine houses. There wasn’t anywhere to pull over so we passed it by. I did get to see the beehive prehistoric houses which was up a steep hill. The ticket counter was a small trailer – obviously the bee hive houses were on private land and the landowner wanted some money from tourists. The beehive houses were just as it sounded, shaped like beehives, but put together with stone and no concrete.

Next we stopped at a prehistoric mound and petting zoo. The ticket counter provided visitors with food for the goats and sheep. The animals are not shy. They came up to me looking for food, which I didn’t have. The mound was somewhat of a anticlimax. If I didn’t know any better I would have thought it was a a big ditch.

Then there were drives around narrow mountain lanes. Once we got behind a tour bus who met a car going counter clockwise. Because the bus was so big and couldn’t go anywhere, the car had to back down the hill in reverse so the bus and all the cars could go by.

Next was the Blasket Vistor’s Center. It was getting to about lunchtime so we decided to have a picnic lunch at tables near their cafe. After a few minutes we were asked to leave and given the excuse that the person’s boss would be upset. I guess the tables were meant for cafe guests. I was pretty upset but complied. We finished our lunch on the steps outside which smokers congregate.

Next we were on our way to Ballyferrier for a second time. This time we did not get out and look.

We then found our way to the Gallarus Oratory – a 1300 year old primitive church. We had trouble finding the free parking area. Had we parked at the more accessible parking lot it would have been 3 EURO. Apparently the property owner next to the church found a way to charge admission for parking, but could not control access from the free parking list. The actual exhibit is free.

The church was similar to the beehive houses with stones stacked with no concrete. There may have been mud but I didn’t see any residue of it. Sharon and I hung around until some of the visitors had left so we could get some good photos.

Next was on to the Kilmalkedar Church – a church ruin, ironically in worse shape than the Gallarus Oratory. There was a cemetery around it with very old and very new graves. We took several pictures of the church, tombstones and flowers around it.

We then drove back to our hotel in Dingle. Sharon took a nap, while I went out and took photos of the colorful buildings of Dingle. I visited St. Mary’s church. It was fairly a modern church inside, but on the outside it looked quite old.

I came back to find Sharon rested and writing on her blog. After a while we went out to the Dingle Diner for pizza and then on to Kool Scoops for ice cream.

Tomorrow we drive to Cork while visiting Killarney and Blarney castle along the way.