Killarney National Park

A few kilometers outside of Killarney, the houses thinned out and I encountered this sign near Torc Waterfall indicating that I was well within Killarney National Park.

I didn't know it then but jaunting car is a known term. It was a means of sightseeing that became popular in the years before the Victorian Era.

And here is the waterfall I stopped to view.

The surroundings.

Downstream.

On the other side of the road is Muckross Lake. The adjoining Lough Leane is the largest of the three sights but wasn't on my route.

The shallows.

The road gained elevation and a few kilometres further on I encountered, no not Leprechaun Crossing, but Ladies View. It was named after Queen Victoria's ladies-in-waiting expressed their admiration.

And here is what they oohed and aahed over. The lake you see is Upper Lake.

There's a cafe if you want to linger and savour the view. There were a whole lot of Quebecois bikers, presumably on a group tour.

A map to give you your bearings.

Moving on, another stop for Looscaunagh. This is why having a car is an advantage over a tour bus, you can stop whenever the scenery beckons.

Rhododendrons are very widespread along road sides in western Ireland.

It's an attractive colour but unfortunately Rhododendron ponticum is an invasive species in Ireland. You can see how thick the shrub is. Some years ago there was a story in Irish newspapers about some walkers who got lost in a rhododendron thicket and couldn't find their way out and had to be airlifted. It must also be very hardy to survive the climate.

And here we leave Killarney National Park. It's not a big NP, and within easy reach of Killarney, thus it's popularity. But don't leave, there's a ring coming up.

Killarney

Killarney is a popular tourist destination because it's the gateway to Killarney National Park and the Ring of Kerry. Naturally a town so popular commands high room prices. As I had a car, I picked a place outside the town. It was a new B&B which had opened only the year before and there was still work in progress. But it was very tidy and very comfortable. I was glad I had sandwiches from Tesco and didn't need to venture out for dinner.

At breakfast I encountered the other lodgers, two Italian couples. We had an interesting time figuring out some of the modern appliances in the kitchen. Breakfast was continental, with cold meats, not an unwelcome change from cooked Irish breakfasts of the last couple of days. I had a friendly chat with the young host, who complimented me on allocating two days for the Ring, unlike the tour buses who rush through it in a day.

I bade farewell to the host and drove into Killarney town. As you can see, buildings painted in bright primary colours are represented here.

The Town Hall.

The kind of accommodation out of my means. There's a tour bus waiting for passengers.

This was just one of the many hotels. Tourism is a major earner for this town.

Must have a cinema in any civilised town.

Green experimental projects.

More colourful buildings.

Fascinating music shop.

This was all very picturesque but I had to get going. Besides it was raining slightly and my paid parking was running out.

The road out of town to the national park was lined with B&Bs. It seemed almost a national occupation, running such establishments.

Shannon and Tralee

I knew there were bus services to Shannon Airport but hadn't looked into details until the night before. Turned out it was the hourly Cork-Limerick-Shannon-Galway long distance service. So I bought a ticket over the Internet and got an e-ticket to show on my phone to the driver.

In penance for too much meat the day before I opted for the vegetarian Irish breakfast after having cereal. It was still filling though.

While waiting to check out, I talked over the phone to the airline office in Dublin and had my feeder flight from Dublin to Heathrow preponed by one service to allow a larger margin for transfer, given my experience a few days before. A few weeks later at Heathrow they thought I was a bit too early for the transfer. It seems people had even been arriving the day before a flight to mitigate the effect of the train strikes. Airports and airlines were in a bind.

The hotel had an interesting lift with open walls. You had to hold down the button for the direction you wanted to go.

The same meat store from the day before looking so tempting with the lighting. If you are a meat eater, Ireland has a lot of livestock so it's local and at least has less food miles.

It was raining slightly so I took refuge in the train station which is adjacent to the bus station.

By and by the Cork-Galway bus arrived. It was an uneventful 35 minute ride to Shannon Airport. Apparently this airport, one of the closest to the US, has pioneered innovations such as duty-free shopping. Later on it would become a goods gateway for many of the Irish factories set up to take advantage of lower tax.

I wasted time looking for the car in the parking lot after completing the car rental paperwork. I had not understood the Irish accent of the employee who had actually told me to wait for the shuttle to the car depot a little way from the terminal building. Then I wasted more time trying to figure out how to work the car. It was a one-button start car (but you had to depress the clutch also) and I had to search the Internet for the car manual. If only they had given me a 5 minute crash (bad pun) course.

As a result I didn't get away until noon, an hour after the start of the rental. I originally wanted to lunch in Ennis but decided to head for Tralee which was less of a diversion. I retraced much of the bus route, but instead of heading into Limerick city I turned south to take the Limerick Tunnel that goes under the Shannon. Less fuel burnt would compensate for the 2€ toll.

Like many N (national) roads in Ireland, traffic bottlenecks when going through towns like Tralee. Eventually I found a car park, had lunch, and took a look around. It's an attractive Irish town with colourful buildings with gilt lettering, and a pedestrian zone.

Interesting facade.

Pedestrian street.

The central square.

There aren't any more pictures for this day. It was slow going with the many towns the N roads went through but I didn't mind as I only had to reach Kilarney before evening. I even visited all the three major discount supermarkets in Tralee: Tesco, Aldi, and Lidl to see what they were like (pretty much the same as other countries, with odd bargains in the centre aisles).

Limerick

Here I have arrived at the outside of Limerick Colbert station.

As for the reason I was starting in Limerick, I had discovered that car hire was appreciably cheaper if picked up at Shannon Airport instead of a city. So the plan was to spend a day and a night in Limerick and then catch a bus to airport to pick up the rental car.

It was about 20 minutes walk to the hotel in the old town. It's pleasing in an old-fashioned sort of way. I realised that one of the attractive features of Irish shops is the use of gilt lettering for signs, as well as the use of bright colours for buildings. It makes them stand out in overcast weather.

Notice the Irish harp which is in the Guinness logo. I didn't attend any pubs during my stay by the way. I'm a non-indulgent drinker, I was going to bed early, and finally I didn't want to be in crowded rooms in the current pandemic.

I must have liked the bright red.

As planned for, I was too early to check in, but I could leave my luggage with reception and go explore the city, and grabbing lunch.

A branch of the Shannon is the Abbey and together they bound Kings Island.

The potato market wasn't operating that day and I didn't need a coffee at that time, but the premises were intriguing.

Not the least because of this flower pot.

Limerick is at the head of the Shannon estuary and the banks are close at this point. Further downstream, it takes a road tunnel to burrow under the Shannon.

You might be wondering how the 5 line verse form was named after the city. The theory is that at the end of the recitation in a parlour game, a refrain from a song that goes Won't you come to Limerick? was added.

Modern Limerick doesn't look anything like the poverty-stricken backdrop of Angela's Ashes. I'm sure the slums described are long gone. Note that many of the details of the story are disputed.

A shiny department store of the Dunnes chain.

An enticing meat store in the pedestrian precinct.

By this time I was feeling a bit peckish so I got a fillet of cod and small chips from Luigi's Fish and Chips and took it to the nearby People's Park to consume. Cod is actually fairly tasteless. I suppose if it had taste it wouldn't be fresh. The portion was larger than I expected so I excised the batter and tossed that to the corvids and pigeons.

After that I took some pictures of the rose garden.

Back at the hotel I finally checked in and rested. Although I did stay up until the early evening, there are no more pictures for the day. I got some sandwiches from the Tesco in the shopping centre for dinner. The music for the adjoining pub could be heard until about midnight. I woke in the small hours, pottered a bit, then went back to sleep until morning.

Westward

As expected, I woke in the small hours of the morning because it felt like about noon to my body clock. I pottered a while until breakfast. I arrived a little after 0700 to not appear too eager but there were other hungry humans there already.

 

I had both the cereal and the full Irish breakfast. It was very filling but not something I can eat often.

The hotel had a lounge with artefacts from another era. I wondered if this antique radio works.

Then it was time to move on. I had booked a train journey to Limerick, on the west coast. It departed from Heuston Station which serves the west and south of Ireland. To get there I had to take a bus into the centre and then west to the station, as the hotel was a few kilometres south of the centre, accommodation prices being much higher nearer the centre.

Rathmines is a trendy suburb to judge from the establishments. I took many pictures on a rainy evening exploration, but since I never came back to this suburb later, that will remain an unpublished diversion.

An amusing sign spotted in a barber shop window while waiting.

I had to make one transfer from the bus to the tram, in ths case the red Luas line. Only after I had boarded I remembered that I was supposed to tap on at the platform. I made ready to alight if any inspectors got on. Fortunately I got to Heuston without encountering them and with a lot of time margin. I had to redeem my Internet booking ID for a physical ticket at a machine like these.

I wasted effort looking for coach B then realised it was the prefix displayed on the e-signs on the coaches. All the signs showed Cork as the destination so I would have to change trains at Limerick Junction.

Irish trains have WiFi and USB charging ports. I didn't see any power lines so I think they were diesel powered.

Green fields and cattle everywhere. Relatively flat part of Ireland. Villages looked homely. Occasional distant hills. Cows were Holstein or Friesian but there were brown cows too.

To be continued in Limerick.