£7k in 7 months...I hope!

Kepp

Nice to have you back, it's been quiet without you!

Ceniza

Welcome back

jtr2803

Top 'o the morning to ya!

Back to work and back to reality today , my desk was an absolute tip this morning where people had just dumped stuff on it whilst I was away :mad:. It's cold here too! Was much warmer in Ireland.

Quick run down of my trip below, I will get my pics on FB this weekend for those already on my friends list, anyone who isn't is welcome to add me, just PM me for my full name!

Saturday 16th

Parked the car at Stansted around 2 as the flight was at 3.30, went through security where I had to take my boots off and show everyone my funky socks . OH said he hates airports so I plan it that we don't have hours hanging around for the flight, now he moans he wanted to have something to eat - men! At 3.10pm I realise they are boarding for our flight and we are some 12 minutes away from the gate so queue us running down, we weren't quite the last people on but almost, still managed to get seats together which I was pleased about.

The flight was just under an hour which went so quickly, it seemed like we just had time to buy a drink before descending again :rotfl:. The landing was dreadful, the plane was rocking all over the place :eek:. Off the plane and head to the car hire place, the bloke in front of us is doing his absolute nut, he thought it was costing him 160 Euros but with the extra insurance and airport surcharge it cost him almost 270! Very glad I used Economy Car Hire as it's just one inclusive price . Got a little wine coloured Micra which was fairly pleasant to drive. Used my work mates Sat Nav and we were at the B&B within 15 minutes which was nice, the town is fairly easy to Navigate and it was still light which helped.

The B&B was literally 5 minutes walk from the town centre but it was also so quiet at the same time. The owner was lovely and gave us the big triple room even though we had only booked a double and gave us some info about the area and restaurants. After unpacking and having a cup of tea we headed into town and went to eat at a pub restaraunt called.......wait for it.....'Murphy's'!! :rotfl:. We realised in here that food was going to cost more than we anticipated . Got dinner down us, had a few drinks (at over £4 a drink!) and then headed back to bed as we had got up quite early to pack.

Sunday 17th

Got up at 8.30am and made our way down for breakfast, egg, bacon, sausage, white pudding, toast, scones, tea and OJ - we had to fill up for the day ahead! Greta (our host) explained where things were and what she thought was good to go and see, turns out there is a castle just down the road so that's going to be our first port of call. Ross Castle sits on the edge of one of the lakes, there are lots of trails and signed walks so OH drags me off for a walk....we did the old mining trail which had some gorgeous views, then we did Governors Rock with similar spectacular views. We get to a cross road and there is a signpost to 'Library Point' which was 1.2km and one back to the castle which was 1.4km. OH decides that going to library point must take us back towards the castle.....it didn't! His saving grace was that we had two Irish Red Deer run out in front of us - there are only around 800 in the country and they all live inside Kilarney National Park . End up at the castle after a 4/5 mile walk :eek:.

We were desperate for a cuppa but the tea room had shut for the winter! We were going to do a castle tour but as there was over an hour until the next one we thought we would find somewhere to grab a drink and go back. End up driving down the road and come across Muckross House, Greta had said it was a nice place to visit and it has a tea room - great! Well Muckross is fantastic....you don't pay to park, you don't pay to go into the massive gardens and it has gorgeous views. We did pay to do a tour of the actual house, unfortunately you can't take pictures but there was a huge amount of original items like curtains/chandeliers and the guide know a lot about it. After the tour we walked round the rock garden, the huge grounds and along past the lake. That takes up quite a chunk of our afternoon so afterwards we decide just to drive a bit further round the Ring of Kerry road as there are loads of little car parks with viewing points.

Find a few little car parks and do some 'wow-ing' and picture taking, then we head to the Torc waterfall...it's gorgeous and best of all - free! It's just a little uphill walk from the main road. It hadn't been raining but it still had a good flow, got lots of piccies . By this time it's like 5 o clock so we head back to the B&B, have a little lay down and head out for dinner about 8pm. Although we are in Ireland, OH fancies an Indian! :rotfl:. £50 later and we are so stuffed we can't even face a bar so head home for a long sleep, I think we were in bed by 9.30 .



Have to do some urgent spreadsheets for the boss now so will pick the rest up later...;)

Woowoo

Hello!

What the hell is white pudding?

All sounds so beautiful, I love scenic walks and would love to visit Ireland.

Lol to the curry, me and the OH would of done the same!

How rude of your boss expecting you to work! Looking forward to the next installement x

Kepp

Wow, sounds amazing!

Can't wait for the next bit x

Woo, white pudding is like black pudding without the blood as far as I understand anyway!

Woowoo

Yuck, I'll give that a miss then Becs!

jtr2803

I have absolutely no idea what white pudding actually is...but it was quite nice!!

Ok, I will carry on now!

Monday 18th

Having had such good weather on Sunday I thought today would probably be the best day to head down to Dingle to try and see Fungie the dolphin . Dingle is about 45 minutes drive from Killarney and the road goes along the coast and it's such a nice drive. Dingle is a tiny little town where all the houses and shops are painted in nice vivid colours. We parked up near the pier and it's exactly the same as it was 12 years ago! I remember the little parade of shops and everything :rotfl:. We grab a cup of tea in a cafe before heading to the dolphin trip booking office. As we walk over the organiser is outside with another English lady, it turns out they were trying to drum up business as the captain wont go out if there is less than 8 people and at the moment there is only 6 adults, a child and a baby , I was starting to get really worried that we wouldn't be able to go! We got told to come back at 1pm and fingers crossed there would be more people. Off we go for a wander around the shops to kill some time, inside I am in turmoil thinking I might not get to see the dolphin again.

Head back just before one and there were still only the 6 of us and the children but fortunately the captain had decided he would take us out anyway :T. We all load on to the boat and start heading out to sea, weather changed a little bit and was quite windy and it kept spitting on and off. Dingle Bay is quite large and halfway out from port to sea the captain tells us to start looking out and shout if we see him! About 5 minutes go past when I spot him quite far out, the captain steers in his direction and says as he is so far out there is a good chance he is hunting so we will have to keep our eyes peeled. He pops up every now and then but always in different places. After a particularly tight turn where the boat was rolling around the English girl I saw at the pier starts blubbing her eyes out and demanding to be taken back to land :mad: as she was petrified. I guess as I have been on some dodgy boats it didn't bother me and I did feel sorry for her but I would have been gutted if we had turned round!

Fortunately the captain managed to calm her down and we kept doing our Fungie spotting routine with me having the highest number of spots . The captain was really doing his best to get us up close and for a few minutes Fungie swam alongside the boat and came up to the back to 'smile'. Once he came in close the petrified girl really seemed to enjoy herself :T. Unfortunately because he wasn't that interested in us we didn't get any pictures but OH did manage to get him on little video clips a few times . The trip was supposed to be an hour but we were out for over an hour and a half so I gave the captain a little extra for his troubles.

We ummed and arr'ed about going to the Oceanworld aquarium but I decided that we can go to an aquarium anywhere and anytime so we got some lunch instead, had another walk round and then carried on down the road till we found a lovely stretch of beach. Had a little walk along it before jumping back in the car and heading to Killarney. Got back into town about 5 and I fell asleep for an hour at the B&B , to try and save some money we planned on just grabbing a little snack somewhere so went back to Murphys for a few drinks. After watching the boring Sunderland game we went home via Burger King (how romantic!) and had another fairly early night.

To be continued......

jtr2803

Tuesday 19th

We woke up with major heavy bellies after the Indian but like a trooper I took advantage of the free cooked breakfast! Wasn't too sure what to do on our last full day, considered going to Glencariff to see the seal colony but it was a fair drive and the weather kept changing with some light drizzle so I thought the boat might not go out. When we previously went to Muckross we didn't walk up and visit the Abbey ruins as we had done all that walking around Ross Castle so that was first on the hitlist, I also fancied doing a lake boat trip so on the way to Muckross we popped to Ross Castle and made a note of the trip times.

We parked up at Muckross and walked up to the Abbey, although it is classed as 'ruins' there is still a huge amount of the building left and you can climb up to the first floor, it looks like they are restoring quite a bit of it so we took lots of piccies. Then we walked back to the house to Muckross house to get a cup of tea and some Soda Bread. There were still quite a few view points we hadn't done so we decided to travel the rest of the south ring of Kerry road and find them.

As we were driving along I saw a little car park so stopped and the sign said 'Dinis Cottage & Meeting of the Waters - 15 min walk'. I had read that the meeting of the waters was very picturesque and had seen Dinis cottage mentioned to we locked up the car and off we trundled. The walk was awful, up and down hills for what seemed like ages.....Dinis Cottage was a bl00dy tea room!! :mad: I honestly felt like I had been robbed! Fortunately we found a nice spot to sit in front of the MOTW's and bask in some sun before heading back but I really felt like I had wasted an hour :rotfl:. Then we headed to the furthest viewing point south - Ladies View. Ladies view is so called because it was the favourite view of the ladies during Queen Victoria's trip in the 1800's. It is a lovely view but as it was raining on and off it was quite dark, I bet when it is sunny it's amazing! There is also a sign there that says 'Leprechauns Crossing' so obviously I had to get a picture.

Because of the rain we decided to pay the waterfall another visit and I'm glad we did, the flow was much higher, OH took loads of pictures of it! After that we headed back into town to get some more money out . We went to a Mexican type restaurant for dinner - another £50 :eek: and then back to Murphys for another Bulmers before heading home for bed.

You will have to wait for my last installment

Woowoo

Wow you did loads Jody.

Can't wait to see a picture of the leprechuans crossing!

patman99

I didn't think Ireland was that expensive. I am planning to drive across england to Wales for a week, then off to Ireland for a week next year.

Will have to save a bit harder.
If I use my van, I can at least fuel it with waste veggie oil, so the fuel costs would be zero.
Glad you had a nice time. I bet the pictures will be amazing.