August 9, 2017 – Dublin to Kilarney, Hop-On Hop-Off

We’re up extra early so that we can finish packing, have our breakfast and meet our taxi and eight o’clock.  We are ready to go down to breakfast by seven, when they open, and enjoy our buffet just as much the second time!  Today, though, among the cheeses is a lovely blue!

We go back upstairs to collect our things and when we get back down our driver is already there!  I turn in our keys and get some change while Connie supervises the loading of the luggage.  Then it’s off to Heuston Station!

Once there we find our way to the booking office and while waiting in line the gentleman in front of us tells us that it is cheaper to book on line and the lady behind us agrees.  The trip to Kilarney is seventy euros at the station and only forty on line!!  We have a voucher, so we don’t even know what our tickets cost!  Tickets in hand we ask an Irish Rail employee what happens next.  He’s been chatting with a man from Croatia and they ask if that’s where we’d like to go!  Well, maybe, but not today! 

He tells us that the board inside will tell us which platform our train will occupy about twenty minutes before departure, so we go inside to sit and wait.  Mary sits down beside us and it turns out she’s taking our train and is kind enough to guide through the process of finding the platform and a car which has available seats.  There is a digital display above each pair of seats and if there are names there, then those seats are booked.  She finds us three together and we settle in.  It requires us to stash our big bags in a wheelchair spot, hoping no one needs it, and hoisting Connie’s third bag overhead. 

There’s free wifi on the train!  I get to write my addendum and post it!  Oh happy day.  We have a three-hour ride ahead of us, which is plenty of time to do almost anything!  We have to change trains in Mallow to catch a smaller train to Killarney and everyone has reminded us of this fact.  The most authoritative person, of course, was the train conductor who comes around to punch our tickets.  Connie is asleep but has been clever enough leave her ticket sticking out of her book!

Shooting from a moving train - yuck!

And reflections all over the place!  But check the mountains!

Our new best friend, Mary, gets off a stop before Mallow;  but we have no trouble knowing when to detrain.  A couple of young girls have claimed Mary’s seat and the vacant one next to her;  but that one has someone’s name on the sign, so we offer them ours when we leave.  We follow the crowd to the train next door and find seats right away.  Sure enough, after an hour we arrive at Killarney and now we just have to find our hotel.

Asking questions gets easier and easier and we discover that it is right in the heart of town!  It’s a gorgeous old building with celtic decorations and all the old architectural touches, like ceiling medallions.  There are two gentlemen minding the desk.  Typical Irish charmers!  When Connie pauses while writing her name one says we can stay of that’s the kind of thing they’re going to have to put up with for two days!  We are offered home-made ginger bread while we wait a few minutes for our room to be ready.  Hard to refuse!!  When it arrives it is accompanied by tea in a silver tea pot and a tray with not just the gingerbread but three scones with butter and strawberry jam. 

Sean's family has owned the hotel for three generations!

 As we are tucking into these delicious goodies, our local host, Donnie O’Sullivan arrives.  He listens to our concern about not being able to take the Killarney Hop-On Hop-Off that we have booked until 4:30.  That means we will miss our Whiskey Experience.  He calls he friend, Pat, and says we can take the 2:30 bus and be back in time for whiskey and chocolate.  Oh joy!  He tells us to be ready tomorrow at 10:00 for the Ring of Kerry tour, as at 9:00 the next morning for our private chauffeur to Galway, via the Cliffs of Moher.  He gives us some discount cards for a couple of restaurants and bids us adieu.

We have time to take things up to our room, settle a bit, and go out looking for our bus stop.  Once again we ask a lot of strangers where we’re going and finally arrive at the stop for the Red Bus.  Nowhere on our voucher does it say Red Bus and when it finally arrives, it really isn’t the right bus at all.  Donnie didn’t get it.  Time to regroup. 

We go looking for the Whiskey Experience and discover that the numbers go up on one side of the street and down on the other!  We find it anyway and explain our dilemma.  Easily solved!  We’ll just go the following evening after our tour!  We book a table for a light snack before the tasting and dinner afterwards, because the manager told us that a heavy meal before hand will probably cause us to fall asleep during or immediately after drinking five different Irish whiskeys!  They have the largest collection of Irish whiskeys in the country!  Over eight hundred different ones!

That’s all settled and we do a bit of shopping and wander to the stop for the correct bus. There is a young Frenchman waiting also and he tells us that he is hoping to camp just outside Killarney National Park.  We chat until the bus comes.  John, the driver says that, although our voucher says there’s a 4:30 tour, there really isn’t.  He’s just going to collect the last people from his previous tours.  The thing we really want to see is the Torc Waterfall and he agrees to take us there and come back for us in half an hour.  That will do. 

The water fall is about a five or ten minute walk from the crazy parking lot where tour busses stand with their motors running and cars jockey for position around them!  What a natural wonder!  So beautiful!  When I’ve done all the damage I can we walk back to the spot where John said he would pick us at about 5:30.  Then it’s 5:40 and 5:50…maybe we can get one of the other busses to take us back?  No need;  here he comes!  He offers to let us have ten minutes at the Muckross House;  but Connie is ready to go back into town and I’m with her. 

Lone piper in the Killarney National Forest

Connie and I both loved the way the light seemed to dance from place to place!

They're called jaunting cars (not carts!).

When he drops us off, he says to go through the outlet mall in front of us and then on to our hotel.  Oh, look!  There’s a luggage store with their prices absolutely slashed!  Connie is really over her little weekend and finds a terrific replacement for a huge discount!!  And I finally get a neck pillow because it’s so very cheap and I’ve always want to see if it would help me sleep on a plane!

Deer in the Forest!

NOT Connie's new suitcase!  But so cool!

Nope, didn't get it!

We find our hotel much more easily this time and go upstairs to drop off our treasurers before going to dinner.  John had recommended two restaurants very close to our hotel and we check out both menus before choosing Murphy’s.  We start out with “Jamie and ginger with a lime” and quickly place our orders for beef and Guinness casserole (me) and poached smoked haddock (Connie).  The portions are ridiculous!  I’m embarrassed by how much I leave;  but I’m sure there was a pound of meat in this dish!  Connie talks me into having a second drink with her and we share a dessert, sticky toffee pudding!  OH! OH!  That’s a magical confection!  Definitely one to remember!

The music won’t start until around nine and it’s only eight-fifteen.  We’re about on our last legs, still recovering from all the walking all over Dublin, and decide to go home and revel in the hot water and an earlier bed time!  We have time to organize for tomorrow, check out mail, Connie packs her new suitcase and I get back to the blog.  With any luck I can get seven hours sleep tonight!!  I’m really pleased that I’ve managed to do my yoga every morning so far;  but it means getting up an hour earlier than Connie.  Luckily I don’t seem to disturb her, so all is good!  Almost time for lights out!!