It was another interesting day but not a very good day for photography. We started with a talk from a retired farmer about what it was like growing up in rural Ireland in the 1950s and 60s. Hard to imagine they did not even have electricity until 1967. And farming was still done with a draft horse and plow.
Next we went to the Muckross house for a guided tour. This is a former manor house much on the same scale as Downton Abbey. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photographs inside and were so rushed to be on schedule that there was no time to compose a picture outside. The owners of the house could not keep up the lifestyle and ended up donating their 11,000 acre estate to the Republic of Ireland for a National Park.
We set out on the ring of Kerry which is a scenic drive in and around the Killarney National Park and Iveragh Peninsula. Our guide was intent on getting us to lunch on time so there wasn’t much time to photograph the beautiful scenery. We finally had a photo stop along the Dingle Bay. I’d never seen a rainbow quite like this one projected onto the water. And no, I didn’t find the pot of gold.
We had lunch in a cute little town but again, between time constraints and rain the photography wasn’t much good. We finally had another photo stop at the top of a hill with a wonderful view b
ut just as we got there the ceiling dropped and the clouds opened up and all we could see was fog and
rain.
I tried a few grab shots from the bus but he was going so fast it was hard to get a good shot. if these sheep look blurry its because they were going by at 100kph. Finally, we had o
ne last stop at an overlook with a magnificent view of a glacier carved valley.
The town of Killarney is not unlike American cities located near National Parks (or, ahem,a certain theater town some of us know and love), full of touristy shops, cafes, and hotels. I’ll have more free ti
me in town tomorrow but I did get a quick shot of one of the horse drawn carts. It is also possible to walk into the Park which is adjacent to the town. One thing for sure, if I don’t like the outcome of the upcoming election I’m moving to Killarney.