Our hotel near Killarney had a towel warmer in the bathroom, and the kids thought that was awesome!
The next day we drove around the Dingle peninsula, and it was sooo rainy and windy! We first stopped at Inch Beach where we thought we would be playing for a bit, but it was way too rainy and windy for that:
The roads were sooo narrow- really only one lane, but they were actually two lanes which made some pretty tricky passing. Thankfully, the road wasn't that busy so we were ok. Ryan did great driving on the left side of the road, and he even made up a song to help him remember- "Drive on the left, drive on the left...."
The drive and countryside were so very beautiful! Green fields of grazing sheep were literally everywhere. Pretty much non-stop sheep everywhere we went once we left Dublin. I loved it!
We stopped and looked at Minard Castle for a minute but didn't hike to it because of the crazy wind and rain. I have literally never been in weather that windy before!
Then we stopped to feed and hold baby lambs! It was at a place called, "Hold a Baby Sheep." That's the name of their site, and the name on their website.
When we got there, a middle-aged Irishman said, "Ya here to hold the sheep?" in a grumpy voice. It was actually charming in how Irish the whole thing seemed!
While we were waiting to hold the sheep, the grumpy Irishman and his helper had to chase some adult sheep out of the barn, and it was hilarious.
Fun to feed the lambs:
We got to hold the baby lambs as long as we wanted to, though we weren't really given any instruction. They were soft and cute and wiggly:
They had some reconstructed Beehive huts on their land, and that was cool to see. They originate from almost 1500 years ago, and were apparently built by some of the first Christians that came to the island (they're also featured in Rise of Skywalker):
Crazy windy here too:
Then we got to watch a sheepdog demonstration, and it was really so cool! The dog was SO excited to do it, and the sheep were led by him so precisely. It was amazing, and worth standing in the pouring rain for! Also, the grumpy Irishman got a lot happier once we committed and paid to watch the demo:
We also stopped at Murphy's on the Dingle peninsula to get their famous ice cream made from cream from the famous Kerry cows. It was good!
Then we left the Dingle peninsula and headed for Bunratty, but we got there too late. We did get dinner in another Irish pub (we ate almost entirely in Irish pubs our whole trip):
Then we set out from our hotel to check out Limerick, where our hotel was. We saw some statues:
An old cannon:
St. Mary's Cathedral:
Fanning's Castle (super old castle remains):
King John's Castle was really cool and looked like a classic castle from the fairytales:
It was right on the riverbank, and even had stone steps that led to the river, which I thought was cool. It was in multiple battles, including against Oliver Cromwell (a guy who the Irish brought up many times as someone they fought against and who they still really don't like).
On the other side of the river from King John's Castle was the Treaty Stone, where the Irish and English signed a big treaty after the force inside of King John's castle lost in 1691.
We had a pretty view from our hotel room in Limerick that night:
And the hotel had a fun chair too!
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