Friday 22 June 2012 Waterford to Tralee via Dingle Peninsula
Miserable wet morning. Left Waterford by 9 am and headed west, one or two
Tom Tom glitches –one landed us in middle of mums taking kids to school in
small village, skirted around Cork and through Killarney and out onto Dingle peninsula.
Stopped at surf beach where it was blowing a howling gale, sand flying up in
the air and one or two people trying to windsurf. Dingle town itself looked
like a pleasant place but was so overrun by coachloads of tourists we didn’t
even stop there. Continued on road over the hill (which was too narrow and
windy for tour buses) to the other side of peninsula which was much wilder and
more to our liking and onto the town of Tralee.
Found another B&B for the night on Late Rooms-interesting discussion
with Eileen our B&B host subsequently about what we looked for in a B&B
(price often but not always) and discovered it was the first time she had been
on that site, and then got another booking for 7 people for the next day. Times
have been very tough for tourism operators here so far this summer as the
weather has been so awful.
Had a wander up and down the High street and then found a nice bar, the “Pikeman’s
Bar” at the Grand Hotel on a side street. It had such a nice feel about it
because there were groups of women having cups of tea, people reading the paper
or having intense discussions or sitting quietly with a pint, sort of place local
people come to after coming into the town to do their shopping. Stayed and had
some dinner there and interesting discussion with farming couple sitting next
to us about current economic situation in Ireland.
We have noticed in many places that there are large numbers of “For Sale”
or For Lease” signs. There are also incomplete buildings, including groups of
houses, just left half finished.
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