August 10, 2017 – Killarney – Ring of Kerry tour and Whiskey and Chocolate Experience

We’re being picked up at ten, so breakfast needs to be at nine.  There is a beautiful buffet with a selection of cereals, cut up fruit, yogurt, gingerbread, scones, and brown bread.  Tea or coffee appears like magic and the young lass asks which of the many hot dishes we would like!  There is a full Irish, French toast, oatmeal, smoked and scrambled (scrambled eggs and bacon or salmon – my choice), and four or five others! 

Our decadent breakfast finished we do a quick check upstairs and retire to the sofas in the corner to wait for our ride, Donnie.  He’s there by 10:02 and takes us and another couple to meet the Ring of Kerry.  It’s about a two minute trip! 

We check in and select seats and in quick order John O’Neil introduces himself as our driver and tour guide.  We really lucked out!  Not only does he know his stuff;  he’s hysterical in the way only an Irishman can be!  Many laughs between the factual bits!  He tells us that women say they are shopping.  They are really picking up and putting down!
He also tells us that you can tell a vehicle that's been driven by a tourist.  The hubcaps and outside mirror are missing from the left side!

When a bus driver has to pick up a group of grumpy Americans from the Booze Cruise, there's an easy way to deal with them.  You just make sure they have one last drink, then get them all comfy in their seats and turn up the heat.  They'll pass out until morning and be no more trouble!

There is lots of classic green landscape before we even reach our first stop.  The sky is overcast, so the mountains are a hazy gray color;  but that just accentuates the greens of the grasses and trees.  

We pass through the village of Killorglin where the Annual Puck Fair is being held.  It is the oldest celebration in Ireland! The villagers go up into the mountains and catch a goat.  They bring him back to town and put him on a tower, where he stays for three days, receiving fish and vegetables and, at six o’clock in the evening, a bucket of Guinness!  He is declared the King of the Festival and after it’s all over but the shouting, he is returned to his mountain!

The next stop is the Kerry Bog Village, which contains a half dozen cottages, including a turf cutters’s dwelling, a forge, a stable dwelling in which the farm animals live along side the people, a “traveler’s” or “tinker’s” caravan, and others.  There are also two Irish Wolfhounds!  If you’re quick, you can get an Irish coffee or Bailey’s coffee and drink it down before it’s time to get back on the bus.  John told us that the only correct way to drink these coffees is THROUGH the heavy cream on the top.  None of that mucking up the thing by stirring it or drinking it through a straw!!  Connie has her first taste of Bailey’s!  I’m so pleased to be able to introduce her to the finer things in life, like Guinness, Jameson’s, and, now, Bailey’s!

More beautiful countryside and a photo stop along the Dingle peninsula.  Then it’s on to what is billed as the number one tourist attraction in Ireland, according to our guide.  I can’t prove it with Google, but we certainly enjoyed it!  It was a sheep dog demonstration!  The sheep farmer explained that each dog has his own set of four signals for left, right, forward, and lie down.  With those, either by voice or whistle, he can control the dogs and they, in turn, control the sheep.  He explained that the sheep have no natural predators in Ireland, so they can be left to graze and wander for weeks at a time.  They tend to scatter, of course, so the dogs have to go up the mountainsides and gather them up.  Also he said that sheep see the dogs as predators, like their ancestors the wolves, so they will always turn away from them.  Most amazingly, when the dogs lie down, the sheep relax and graze;  but when one of the dogs stands up, the sheep are immediately tense and alert.  

He asks if everyone understands before we make his sheep dizzy!!  After the herding demonstration he introduces us to about a dozen different sheep, each a different variety with various uses, like special cheese or especially tender lambs.  One is from the Vikings and another has brown wool so that when you see a brown sweater, you can know the wool hasn’t been dyed.

More photo stops and a break for lunch.  We get vegetable soup which comes with brown bread, and carrot cake;  but we’re too full to eat it and pack it up for later.  Connie gets the bread pudding to sample.  It’s make with peaches and is very like a cobbler, but not crunchy.

There is a stop at a tweed store, the Avoca, where we get to watch a weaving demonstration and drool over the incredibly soft mohair scarves and remind ourselves that we live in Florida. From that same spot we can see The Gap which is pretty famous here.  It’s not a store.  And it’s name is actually Moll’s Gap.

Just beyond is Ladies’ View.  It is said that Queen Victoria’s ladies in waiting greatly enjoyed the view during the queen’s visit in 1861.

We’ve driven/ridden the entire Ring and are back in the heart of town.  Our hotel, which we now know is named for a tree with red berries, is less than a block away!  We have just found the back door!  Upstairs we drop off our new acquisitions, rest of about five minutes, and head out again.

We have six o’clock reservations for a light snack before our Whiskey Experience at Celtic Whiskey Bar & Larder.  And we only have to ask directions once!  Frances has put a “reserved” sign on our table!  We feel so special!  We both order the St. Tola Goat’s cheese, beetroot and toasted almond salad.  When we’re finished I want to lick the plate!  A tantalizing combination of flavors and the best goat’s cheese ever made!  It’s creamy and soft and tangy and delicious! 

We have a while before our tasting, so we check in with Sean, the manager, and tell him we’ll be back in time.  We wander down the street and decide to explore Dunnes so we can report back to our waitress in the Tampa airport.  It’s a lot like a Super Target, nice clothes, decent prices, and even a grocery in the back! 

Back at the bar we wait just a bit and then are seated with just a few other people to our whiskey and chocolate pairings experience. There are seven of us with two couples from France and the rest of the USA.  Another man joins us just after the beginning.  Alan is our instructor and he begins by having each of us sniff one of twelve little brown bottles.  He tells us that each of these flavors can be found in whiskeys, except one bad one!  Eventually all twelve are identified, and they include chocolate, vanilla, coconut, pine, and others (maybe tomorrow I’ll remember some more!)  We then watch two short videos about the history of Irish whiskey and Alan teaches us about the process by which it is made.  (See notes on Jameson’s).  But every person you listen to adds a bit to the story.  From Alan we learned that when the Irish fought for their independence from Great Britain, the British stopped buying anything made in Ireland.  That began the great downfall and America’s Prohibition finished it off.

In just the recent past Irish whiskey sales and production have increased from 0.04 percent of the world’s to 8 percent!  It is one of the fastest growing industries.

Now it’s time to get down to it!  Alan introduces to each of the four whiskeys we will be tasting and as we sample each one, he tells us about the chocolate with which it is paired and why that choice was made.  The fourth one has a strong peat flavor and I thought I’d hate it.  I don’t!  The four whiskeys and chocolates are Powers Three Swallows( Cocoa atelier vanilla), Writers Tears (Cocoa atelier ginger), Bushmills (Cocoa atelier mango), and Connemara (Cocoa atelier salted caramel).

Our tasting completed and our palates educated, it is time for dinner.  We actually get to stay where we are, in the window!  We offer to go out on the sidewalk and invite new customers!

We’ve lost Frances as she is working in the main room;  but we’ve acquired Colm and he’s great!  Connie orders a Jamie and Ginger and I have a Jameson’s neat.  And for dinner we decide to split the seared cod with new baby potatoes, buttered savoy cabbage, Gubbeen, chorizo, and cream, and the 8 oz dry aged sheelin fillet steak with grean beans, whiskey cream sauce, and mashed potatoes.  I think it’s all superb and clean my plate. Colm says I get a gold star;  but I think it’s imaginary, ‘cause I can’t find it!  I ask his advice about what to bring home and he offers a couple of suggestions, one of which I take.  Hope it’s as good as it smells!!  It’s been aged in five different wine barrels!!

Interesting note about the bar – they pair with a charity called Mary’s Meals that provides food for needy children across the world.  For each main course sold, the Celtic Whiskey Bar donates enough money to feed a child for a day! www.marysmeals.ie

We finally make our exit and only have one small oops when finding our way home.  Pretty good for the night we’ve had!

Tomorrow starts at nine, so we’ll have to get it together pretty fast in the morning.