Killarney

 

Put this place on your bucket list.  You will thank me later.  On the West Coast of Ireland is the County Kerry.  Killarney and Dingle and other lovely towns that reside around what is know as the Ring of Kerry.  An an interesting fact I came across.  You will notice many towns begin with 'KIL".  Well in Gaelic that means church.  So each town with that name has a church in it! 

It's unspoiled nature, babbling streams, beautiful valleys and soaring landscape make it in my eye's mind,the Irish Garden of Eden. You breathe the air and you are intoxicated.   If you are keeping up with the blog you probably know I have a thing for Irish butter, well this is the place a lot of it is produced.  You will see it even in some finer grocery markets in the states, Kerry Gold.  You can see why the food taste so bloody good.  Take a look at what the cows and the sheep are eating.  Some of earth's finest vegetation!

We started off the morning at the Killarney Park Hotel, in the heart of the city center. 

It is a wonderful hotel with lovely rooms, great staff and of course great food.  It is also very accommodating to the American tourist which is another huge plus for the hotel. We had a long day ahead of us so we stocked up on a big breakfast in the handsome dining room.




I tried the local smoked salmon and the delicious Kerry buttered scrambled eggs.  My daughter had an oldie but a goody.   Two soft boiled eggs with soldier toast points.  A classic staple from my youth.  We also engaged in their freshly baked loaves of bread and the Kerry butter as well the traditional Irish breakfast staples of black and white pudding and Irish rashers.  We stuffed our selves silly and were now ready to begin the day's journey!

We took a horse carriage ride through The Dunloe Pass,  Our horse, Betty was an old lady and didn't quite seem to be in the mood to haul or Texas asses through the pass.  At a few points we had to do some serious incline walking because Betty just couldn't do it.

Even though we had the slowest horse in the group, we didn't mind. It gave us more time to enjoy the stunning scenery.  We went up the Dunloe pass, which is very narrow and windy.  This was not for the faint of heart.  There were quite a few times we had to veer off to allow a car to nestle by us.  The ride took a few hours and then we were taken to Muckross lake where we took a motor boat back towards Killarney and Ross Castle.  It was quite an amazing day and found it a great way to see the beauty of County Kerry.

We were quite hungry when we arrived back at the hotel.  So we decided to eat at the hotel.  We were in for a real treat.

I am sorry to do this to you, but take a look at this above and don't tell me this doesn't look amazing.  Local caught lobster with truffled Kerry drawn butter, rocket and Shaved Parmesan salad with the tastiest Irish chips.  OMG!!!! Amazing...