Dingle Peninsula

Our first day in Killarney started off with absolutely beautiful weather. The locals gave us the advice to use it for a trip to the Dingle Peninsula, so that's exactly what we did.

The dingle peninsula is a beautiful place that has everything you could ever want: Beaches, Rolling Hills and green meadows, as well as steep mountainsides with waves crashing below.

The first important stop on the drive around the peninsula is a really wide and beautiful stip of beach called the Inch Beach. With the glorious weather there were quite a few people out and about, taking walks on the beach.

Chrissi had been here before and she had told us that every year she would actually get into the water at this beach. Despite the cold. This year she wanted to just go barefoot at the beach. It was kind of fun to watch. Naked feet in the icy water, and up top still wearing a winter coat.

Afterwards we drove on towards Dingle. The town has one really famous attraction and that is Fungi the Dolphin. I guess normally we probably wouldn't have gone out to see it, but Chrissi really wanted to, so we decided to tag along.

In retrospective I have to say: Those Dolphin Tours are a rather cruel thing. There were like four other boats besides ours at the edge of the marina, chasing the poor Dolphin around so everybody can get a view. I still wonder why that animal even stays in Dingle.

My recommendation: Don't do it! There are supposed to be tours that start earlier in the morning, have a duration of two hours instead of one, and take only few passengers on. Then they take the boat out to the edge of the marina and just wait for the dolphin to show up. No chasing. So if you really want to see it, please book a tour like that, and not the regular 'Fungi' tours.

We left Dingle to take the Slea Head Drive, which is the most beautiful and spectacular part of the peninsula in my opinion. The road is very narrow out there, and mostly rimmed by a stone wall on one side, and mountain on the other. I definitely wouldn't have had fun driving there, but Tim didn't mind.

We stopped to look at the ancient beehive huts, former monasteries from centuries ago. There were also sheep there and lambs. I don't know if I've written that before, but we loved the sheep. We went awwwww every time we saw one.

At the very head of Slea Drive you have great view of the Blasket Islands. We had initially planned to take a ferry over there but they didn't go out today.