wednesday 1st of August:

Well I thought we we're done on Tuesday night-but oh no the 'chicks'-Amanda, Megan and Molly-had trotted of to town and located their new favorite-Tatler Jack-so they where not Johnny on the spot for Breakfast. We finally got everyone going; Inga had a hair dryer crisis-it died-but fortune was on her side and Rose had packed an entire second voltage adapter assembly the Inga mated up with the second hair dryer she'd packed. Like I said previously the packing/luggage thing could have been it's own tour group. So back onto the N22 to N21 thru Tra Li [Tralee] and yes there was signing involved to the N86 and into Dingle. Seems that everyone in south Ireland chose Wednesday the 1st to visit Dingle-the Garda was even directing the round abouts-and so after an hour in traffic we finally parked in the Marina Lot. Parking lots are an optional issue -they don't have a whole lot of organization-lines-so you just act like you are Good to Go and make sure you pay the meter and put the disc/slip on the dash. They do have minute by minute meter readers who's career are provided a large variety by the how to park where ever you can rental car drivers operating on the wrong side of their accostomed road. Dingle is shopping-so off I went to seen the history; well the city library has a nice plaque/museum; the old hospital just has a plaque but there are a huge variety of colors in the housing and one spectular garden I found while lost-it was a street that ended in an alley that turned the corner into another alley-that ran into one of the main steets. About then the Funeral left St Mary's -complete with Garda stopping all the traffic for the procession-thank god we'd already parked traffic really backed up. Everyone was on DIY lunch and we meet at 3ish [actually 4ish] and onto Slea Head.

I have been intrigued researching this trip by the span of civilization that is present in Ireland and not really elsewhere in Europe except in spots and the Celtic influence from the past 3000 years is somewhat exemplified with the beehive houses-there probably are many more sites, but the stones where reused to construct the miles of fences-and more are being located even today with new imaging review of aerial photographs. These sturdy -and actually well enigneered structures- are water proof [it does rain in Ireland] and provided a high degree of security to the dwellers from raiders. The ladies may not have had as much fun as I did; but everyone seemed glad we had made the effort. We got back on the road to Slea Head on the R559-where you can see the Basket islands-and our scholar related that everyone who was evacuated from starvation in the 1960's next stop was to write a book. Also at Slea Head there where some Whale Watchers-I'll have to belive them even with their spotting scopes could not see any-who where participating in a Ireland wide survey of the whale population; kind of like the Audubon bird thing. As we departed there was a very brave sheep just ambling along the wall; probably a smart move actually on his part since the road was only about 15' [that's 5 meters] wide and all those folks from a day of shopping in Dingle who choose not to brave Connor Pass where taking the seniec route back to their B&B driving on the wrong side of the road @ 100KPH. Well we had to make a neccessary stop-and pick up an Ice Cream in Castlegory before heding back to Killarney for a nice Steak Dinner. This was followed by a quick Internet Cafe stop and then back to the new favorite Tatler Jack-who fortunately has an after-hours license-that means the they continue serving and consuming until the wee hours of you so choose. Some time in the middle of the evening it was decided that everyone had sever onset of Car Fanny; and could we please just go and get there tommorrow; which would allow a morning of Killarney economic recovery also. Thus ends Day 5.