Tag Archive for: travel

Ring of Kerry

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Today was our last day in Ireland. We head out very early tomorrow morning. 4am. And we will have about 20 hours or so in travel time before we get home.

Regardless, a fantastic trip. We did a remarkable amount of touring in a short time. We drove the Ring of Kerry today and I was able to get some great pictures.

As many of you have asked, the camera I am using is indeed the new Nikon D200. Most of the pictures were shot with an AF-S Nikkor 18-70mm F3.5-4.5 G ED lens. The images have been captured in RAW format as well as basic JPEG.

The landscapes are fantastic here in Ireland. Simply amazing. And we enjoyed great weather. Some cloud, a little rain, but overall very pleasant.

Here are a few pictures of the Ring of Kerry:

Ring 4

Ring 1

Ring 5

Ring 2

Ring 3

The Gap of Dunloe

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Yesterday we toured the Gap of Dunloe. The walk was about eight miles in length in a wild gorge bordered by Macgillycuddy’s Reeks and the Purple and Tornies mountains. The journey through the Gap of Dunloe is spectacular. The gorges are very steep and the glacial lakes are very impressive.

Lorraine and I really had quite the workout. And, of course, I am walking along with my tripod, my camera and my backpack, stopping every few minutes to take another photograph. We only had 3 hours to get to Lord Brandon’s cottage as that was where we needed to join a boat returning to Killarney. We just made it in time.
Here are some photos of the Gap of Dunloe.

Gap 1

Gap 2

We finished up the tour by spending a couple of hours boating through the Lakes of Killarney. Our tour finished here at the Ross Castle. And, later that day, we also toured the Muckross Abbey.

Gap 5

Gap 6

Gleninchaquin

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Lorraine and I climbed Mount Everest today. Okay. Not quite Mount Everest, but the hiking trail at Gleninchaquin was quite a test of endurance. To reach the top of the mountain was time consuming and it reminded me that my cardiovascular system is in dire need of some help.

As with all of the areas that we have seen to date, the landscape was stunning. Today was the first day of rain although it did hold back until mid-afternoon. I was able to get some excellent pictures of the valley of Gleninchaquin. Here are a few of them for you to see.

Gleninchaquin 1

Gleninchaquin 2

Gleninchaquin 3

Gleninchaquin 4

Gleninchaquin 5

Muckross House

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As promised, here are some pictures of the Muckross House gardens from our tour of the Ring of Kerry in Ireland. Stunning environment.

Muckross 1

Muckross 2

Muckross 3

Muckross 4

Kenmare

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We arrived in Kenmare today. And in enough time to go on a photo shoot. I worked through a couple of hundred exposures so I’ll only highlight a couple of quick jpegs to give you a sense of the world over here.

We started off by driving along the Ring of Kerry. This is a beautiful drive through some fantastic landscapes. We stopped at Muckross House. Although I am only showing you part of the estate, the gardens were simply amazing. I may post more of those pictures over the next few days.

Muckross House

There were so many historic buildings on the journey. This one is of an old farmhouse converted into a gift shop and restaurant.

Mollie Farm

We drove up through Ladies’ View and had a chance to see the Lakes of Killarney.

Lakes of Killarney

We checked into our hotel at Sheen Falls Lodge. Our room overlooks the falls pictured below.

Sheen Falls Lodge

And, a picture of a couple of boats in Kenmare.

Kenmare Boats

Ireland Day 2.5

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A little bit of time for touring today. We had a chance to visit a couple of churches: Christ Church Cathedral, a church that was established at its current location around 1030, and St. Patricks Cathedral, a church that was founded beside a sacred well where Saint Patrick is thought to have baptized converts around AD 450.

The two top pictures are of Christ Church and the bottom two pictures are of Saint Patrick. There was something quite moving about visiting these churches and learning about their history.

Christ Church Cathedral 1

Christ Church Cathedral 2

Saint Patricks Cathedral 1

Saint Patricks Cathedral 2

Ireland Day 2

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Most of today and tomorrow will be focused on the business end of the trip. I will have a little time today to continue to explore the city. Tomorrow is all booked. And Friday we leave to Kenmare for some personal time in southwest Ireland.

A few more photos to share.

The first is indicative of the type of housing throughout much of the downtown area. Beautiful homes. And, yes, those are palm trees in the front yard.

Irish house

The second is a picture of Examination Hall at Trinity College. This building was completed in 1791. I don’t think students liked exams any better back then.

Trinity College

This next picture is a transit streetcar. Very sleek and high tech.

Irish Transit

And, last one for today, is another shot of the Grafton shopping district. When we went to dinner in the same area last night, everything was closed. Unlike some areas of North America, the go-go lifestyle is absent here. The stores close by 6 or 7pm. And they do not stay open on Sundays.

Irish Shopping

The Emerald Island

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We left our home on the journey to Ireland at around 4pm EST. We finally made it into the hotel at around 7am EST. That would be about 15 hours of continuous travel with little sleep.

Am I a little tired right now?

Regardless, before the meetings start tomorrow, we had to explore Dublin. And I found out a few things about the people who live here.

First, they prefer to do their work at the park. Every park that we walked through had hundreds of office workers just sitting on the grass. Some were having picnics. Some were reading books or newspapers and others were just sleeping.

Irish at the Park

The people who were not hanging around the parks were on Grafton Street shopping. The place was absolutely packed with people. There were so many people hanging out that we thought we must have arrived on a holiday.

Irish Shopping

Nope. Everyone was just enjoying a fantastic day. Sunny and 25 degrees Celsius. No rain in the forecast for the rest of the week.

And, with parks like this, little wonder the people of this city take some time out to enjoy the summer weather.

Irish Garden