Now that I'm back home, I thought I would do one final post about a few things that I thought were interesting. Money For the paper money, the euros increase in physical size as the denomination of the bill increases. While they technically still have 1 and 2 cent coins, they don't use them much but instead practice Swedish Rounding fo...

Since I wasn’t flying home till Thursday afternoon, I decided on Tuesday to make use of my rental car and drive the rest of the ring of Kerry and go visit the Dingle Peninsula. One last look out toward the Skelligs. Looking over towards the Beara Peninsula, where I spent the last two weeks. Drove through the Killarney National Forest I...

The last leg of my Ireland trip was to go visit Skellig Michael. Both Ben Webb and Ken Miller had strongly recommended that I should really try to visit Skellig Michael when I go to Ireland . My plan was to take a boat ride out to Skilling Michael on Monday. The boat leaves from the village Portmagee. Since there were no buses running ...

On Friday I walked the last stretch of the Beara Way from Lauragh to Kenmare. I felt a bit of sympathy for you folks back in Virginia and the heat wave you all are having. The weather was perfect for walking. 60 degrees and a bit cloudy. The route started with walking up this hill And down the other side Past this farmhouse With a brie...

On Wednesday I walked about 14 miles from Eyeries to Lauragh. I met a lovely German couple at the B&B in Eyeries. Since we were going the same direction on the same day, they invited me to join them for the trek. We had a lot of interesting discussions about culture, healthcare, and politics. The route started with a 4 mile walk over t...

On Monday, I walked from Allihies to Eyeries. I ended up combining portions of the Beara way with the Beara Bicycle Route. I first walked up in the hills behind Allihies past the Mountain Mine Man Engine House. I then followed a trail down to the coastal road and walked along the roadside for about five miles. Looking over towards the ...

On Sunday, a taxi took me and some other walkers down to visit Dursey Island. We rode a cable car over to the island. It’s the only cable car of its kind in Ireland and is the primary means a transportation between the island and the mainland. Bit of history about the island. According to a sign at the cable car station, the Vikings us...

On Saturday, after a full Irish breakfast, I left Castletownbere and walked the 10 miles to Allihies. The full Irish breakfast. Lots of toast with orange marmalade and multiple cups of coffee are also part of it. The route today was an ascent over these hills/mountains behind Castletownbere and then a decent to Allihies. Right outside ...

On Thursday, I walked about 12 miles from Adrigole to Castletownbere. Initially it was supposed to be a bit farther. However, our host needed to take us from the B&B to the starting point and offered to take us a couple miles further down the road where a trail connected up with the Beara way. All of us folks were walking that day were...

On Tuesday, I walked the first leg of the Beara way which is the 10 miles from Glengariff to Adrigole. The morning started out a bit cloudy but it wasn’t long before the sun came out. Temperatures in the mid 60s most of the day. The first 5 miles were quite pleasant walking back into a valley between a mountain. The last 5 miles were a...

On Sunday, June 30, I took a bus from Cork to the village of Glengariff. Ireland has a reasonable bus system that connects the various villages on the peninsula. I spent Monday in Glengariff. Garnish Island is in the harbor of Glengariff and has a beautiful garden on it. Apparently there wasn’t much on the island for a while other than...

“There are four peninsula on the west side of Ireland. The one that I’m walking is the Beara Peninsula and the route is called the Beara Way. Map of the Beara Way.”

On Friday I traveled to Cork, which is a city on the south west side of Ireland. After eating breakfast in the Buttery, which is the student cafeterias at Trinity, I went off in search of a pen. My current favorite pen is Uniball Signo 207 in a micro point. However, the one I brought with me was having difficulties with the ink. After ...

I’ve been staying at Trinity College, Dublin, which is a fairly old college that built in the 1500s on the site of a former monastery. The monastery was destroyed when King Henry the 8th became annoyed at the Catholic Church for not letting him divorce his wives. As a result, he also went about destroying monasteries in Ireland and Bri...