CONNOR'S PASS

The drive from Bunratty to Dingle over Connor's Pass was magnificent! We drove this in the afternoon after the Bunratty folk park. We stopped the car at the top near a small waterfall, just us and an Irish family nearby.

Gorgeous green mountains, sheep-dotted, clouds and mist lend mystery. Two rays of sunlight pierce through the clouds and the green valley is lit by a shaft of gold. Little waterfalls. WOW.

The Irish man interrupts my reverie to inform me if we don't get moving now, that fog is moving fast, and it will soon engulf our road up ahead completely! He was a kind good samaritan. We had been so lost in the wonder of it all, we hadn't noticed how that lovely fog really was creeping up on us.

The Irish man headed down with his family and we headed up and lived to tell this tale.


HEATON'S GUESTHOUSE, DINGLE

We checked into Heaton's Guesthouse in Dingle, and that is where I have decided to live for all of my days Our "deluxe" room was lovely with a view, and the breakfast is grand and decadent! Daughters had a nice twin room. (See Michele's book and also www.heatonsdingle.com)

Oh, the pancakes at Heaton's are unique and similar in texture to a homemade muffin, with a bit of crunchy on top. I ordered fresh fish for breakfast one morning, yum. The cold breakfast bar had nice fruit, etc. All of these wondrous choices and more are included in your room rate! Oh, you can have porridge with drambuie and cream as a starter!

Nuala greeted us upon our arrival at Heaton's and she was most welcoming. Cameron entertained us while serving breakfast, and when we had a late breakfast he had time to linger for a chat. We all enjoyed our breakfast chats with Cameron. Ah, breakfast is heaven at Heaton's.

Heaton's is fantastic - comfty King bed in our deluxe room #8, blue and white room, very clean, pleasant, cheerful. Power shower w/ tub, nice wide-screen TV, 2 soft chairs, vanity and chair. Walk into lively Dingle town in about 10 minutes...easy flat walk with sidewalks. Breakfast until 10:00 am, woo-hoo! I'm raving, I know. I highly recommend this place. Thanks Michele for having them in your book! This isn't the Ritz, you understand; I am saying for a family-run guesthouse it is really tops! The deluxe room was 75 euro per person sharing in July.

I enjoyed our other b&bs just as much for different reasons. But for a family trip, where you are paying for 2 rooms, I consider Heaton's a worthy splurge with a bit of spoiling.

Criticisms of Heaton's? Absolutely none. We were completely satisfied.

DINGLE PENINSULA DRIVE

We followed Rick Steve's guidebook for the self-drive of the Dingle Peninsula, along with Michele's guidebook. (The section on Dingle is the only section of Rick's book which we found very reliable.)

Dingle Peninsula is beautiful; the poetry of inspiring scenery, white-capped waves spraying up onto black rocky coast. Dingle is now called An Daingean, so brush up on your Gaelic!

We tend to lolly-gag, much to my hubby's dismay, so we got a late start on our Dingle Peninsula drive. (I think that is why Guiness was invented...to soothe the savage man at the end of the day Shopping was invented to soothe the lolly-gagging woman. )

So off we headed in the rain, with our guidebooks, to explore the gorgeous Dingle peninsula. Hubby was driving and whipped right by the Milestone B&B with the prehistoric stone pillar (gallaun) in its front yard. We made hubby turn around and drive back. My artistic daughter, age 20, and I scurried out of the car into the pouring rain. There we stood in our raingear and umbrellas, touching this mysterious ancient stone that may have been there since 4,000 B.C. Our first contact with ancient Ireland history.

In Ireland there are thousands of ancient ruins, big and small, and the older they are, less is known about their history and origins. Some of them are marked with long, complex explanations on boring signs.

Later in our journey, my younger daughter, 19, a budding anthropologist/writer, gave us her concise summary of these long boring signs: "THIS SIGN IS USELESS. IT BASICALLY SAYS THIS IS VERY VERY OLD AND WE KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT IT!"

There are many memorable views along the Dingle Peninsula, and plenty of ancient bits of ruins left behind by prehistoric peoples for us to wonder about. The sun did come out for us and we enjoyed the peninsula immensely. I would love to return someday as our lolly-gagging causes us to miss a lot...never got to Inch beach for example. But we enjoyed ourselves and Dingle is a great place to start your Irish journey!

LUNCH: STONE HOUSE RESTAURANT
A great place for lunch along the Dingle Peninsula drive is the Stonehouse Restaurant on the Slea Head Loop across from the Dunbeg Fort. We enjoyed great vegetable soup and brown bread for 4 euros. The open-faced chicken sandwich was also tasty for around 8 euros..

By the time we arrived at the Great Blasket Center on the Dingle Peninsula, it was 5:30 pm and it was closing soon, so we put this one off til the next day. Headed back to Dingle for our dinner reservation at the Half Door.

DINNER: HALF DOOR RESTAURANT, John St., Dingle.
Half Door has gourmet food but it is over-priced for dinner. I found it disappointing because for the price, food was very artistically presented, but it looked better than it tasted! Two of us had the price-fix dinner at a whopping price of around 37 euros each. I was disappointed in my main dish, which was crab (very little crab) with too much cheese and a watery sauce. The food was decent, but worth about half what we paid for it, and though it was our most expensive meal, it wasn't the best meal we ate.

I should mention I live in San Diego and am accostomed to a huge variety of gourmet restaurants to choose from, so I had high expectations. If an expensive restaurant isn't going to wow me, I would rather have good hearty pub grub and pay less.

DINNER: JOHN BENNY MORIARTY PUB, DINGLE
We were pleasantly surprised with the good quality of our dinner in this ordinary-looking pub. I enjoyed my Black Sole with lemon butter sauce for 16 euros immensely. It was very fresh and hubby showed me how to lift the whole skeleton of bones right off the whole fish. Very tender. Funny thing is hubby kept telling me that I hate flat white fish and that I shouldn't order it but I sure am glad I didn't listen to him. I had lots of fish in Ireland but this one stands out...delicious. Everyone enjoyed their meals here, and it was uncrowded and reasonably priced. www.johnbennyspub.com

DINNER: ASHE'S BAR, MAIN ST., DINGLE
Another budget-friendly place for dinner is the very no-frills Ashes Bar in Dingle. We loved their Beef Guiness Stew for 16 euros. Friendly service.

BLASKET CENTER, DUNQUIN, DINGLE PENINSULA:
I loved the Blasket Center! I spent many fascinating hours there and my family had to drag me away. It is a great place for lovers of poetry, literature, and history. It is more meaningful if you have learned ahead of time about the people who lived on the Blasket Islands off the shore of Dingle Peninsula.

After visiting the Blasket Island center, we all unanimously voted to go over to the Great Blasket Island on a boat. HOWEVER it was too late! It was already afternoon and the lady working at the center explained that if we went that late in the day, they would only take us over if they had enough people, and then we would be on the last boat to return, so would be stuck on the island until 7:00 pm. So we will have to see the Great Blasket Island on the next trip.

My older artistic daughter, 20, said she wished we could go to the island because it is like traveling back in time to remember a way of life that is gone now. She said here in America we pave over our past, but on the Great Blasket Island the past has been "preserved". The lady working at the center said the government is trying to buy the island so that its history can be preserved and so that it won't get built up with hotels.

Hubby was fascinated to learn at the Blasket Island Center that in Luxemburg, there is (or was) a language called Luxemburgian (Luxemburgese?) He didn't know that, and he has some ancestors from Luxemburg.

VIEW OF BLASKET ISLAND:
The view of Blasket Island and Sleeping Giant from the coast behind the Blasket Island Center on Dingle Peninsula is gorgeous. Be sure to take a walk behind the center. This is what I was inspired to write in my journal:

"There is only the place where the land meets the sea. Why does this world apart feel so special? Is it the contrast between the choppy white caps of the Atlantic and the dark rocks? Is it the green hills of Ireland dotted with sheep and criss-crossed with farming plots? I think it is the peace that really makes you feel grounded. The lack of hotels, beach umbrellas, and litter is refreshing.... The way we tame and civilize the land spoils it. Here, we can still see nature in its primal form."

MURPHY'S PUB, DINGLE:
Murphy's was our favorite pub for music in Dingle. It was a fun and happy crowd, lots of smiles and clapping. The lead musician/singer did a lot of sing-a-longs. It was the only pub we visited where the musicians included a bodhran player. (Why aren't there more of them?) Murphy's was a lively place...there was one regular fella who wanted to dance, so he enticed an elderly woman with white hair to dance with him. I think he made her day...she was wearing a huge smile. My older daughter said this is what she imagined pubs in Ireland would be like.

It was a mixed crowd of tourists and locals. Late in the evening some of the Irish young folk came pouring in, standing room only by then.

GUINESS at this point in the trip was as tasty to me as turpentine. But I dutifully tried Guiness, Murphy's, Smithwick's, and also Toucan (which apparently is made from an original Guiness recipe no longer used.) I tried all these beers over a number of days. Then I tried a more familiar lighter beer, and compared to those stronger beers it tasted like dishwater. So I found I had developed a taste for the stronger beers...Guiness has a bite but now I've been bitten and I like it! (Am I a vampire now?)

VIEW AT RYAN'S DAUGHTER:
I am a bit foggy on where this stop was, but it was gorgeous. I think it is the beach on the Dingle Peninsula where they filmed Ryan's Daughter. We stopped there spontaneously. Stark, black, sharp rocks jut out of the water towards the cliffs like spears. White-caps of ocean spray about them.

SUMMARY:
Lively Dingle town and the wild Dingle Peninsula were everything I dreamed they would be. Three nights in Dingle wasn't nearly enough. I wish we'd spent 4 or 5 nights in Dingle. I would have then added a visit to the Great Blasket Island on a boat, and more time to shop in town. I never got to visit the An Cafe Liteartha, a bookshop and restaurant in Dingle. On my next visit to Ireland, I will either return to Dingle again, or else I will explore one of the nearby peninsulas, such as the Beara Peninsula.

Off to awesome County Clare in Chapter Three, coming up.

-- Edited by Melissa5 at 21:03, 2006-07-25

-- Edited by Melissa5 at 01:52, 2006-07-26