Ireland, Day 2- Ring of Kerry

Our 2nd day in Ireland was spent touring the "Highlights of Kenmare & Killarney". Most of the tour consisted of the views from the bus windows as we rode around the "Ring of Kerry". Fortunately, we were the first 4 in line and we all got front seats on the bus! The views were green, hilly and full of sheep and cows... it was *just* what I hoped Ireland would be!

The bus driver dropped us off in the quaint little town of Kenmare to have coffee, but we opted to check out the shops instead.

 We took a photo-stop at "Ladies' View," a place where Queen Victoria thought the view was so amazing that she summoned to her ladies-in-waiting to check it out. QV knew her stuff... it was a beautiful view of the Killarney Lakes & mountains!

 Our next stop was Killarney National Park, where we had a view of one of the three Killarney Lakes. The park was very nice! Pretty flowers, big trees, nice paths, etc. And of course, beautiful views of County Kerry.

Muckross House is found within Killarney National Park. Distant relatives of Queen Victoria lived here at one time, but they went totally broke preparing to host Her Majesty and lost their house. It eventually ended up being a wedding gift, before it and its grounds were turned into a National Park. We decided not to pay the admission fee to go inside because we'd already seen the interior on Rick Steves'. And because I feel that if you've seen the inside of one Victorian-era estate house, you've seen them all. Unless you are into that sort of thing. I'm not. And I'm pretty sure that David's not either! :)

David enjoyed exploring the grounds at the park! I have no idea how he managed to get up this huge tree!

Muckross Traditional Farms are also on the park grounds. We paid admission for this, because I was really hoping to feed a baby cow with a bottle or shear a sheep, neither of which happened. Nevertheless, it was an interesting place to walk through.

There were recreated cottages and farms from the early 18-1900s across different "income brackets" The cottages were super-cute, their fireplaces were going and guides were warming bread for us to eat on our way through.

The guides kept telling us to watch our heads on the way through the cottages, but I didn't see the point! More proof that I'm not short, I'm just old fashioned!

Even though I didn't get to shear any sheep or bottle-feed any baby cows, (we did see horses, cows, geese, a HUGE pig, a goat, and sheep... just didn't touch them or milk them) I was thrilled to spend lots of time petting this sweet kitty. I wonder why!?! Doesn't she look familiar??

We headed to the town of.... I don't remember! Killarney, maybe! And had lunch before heading back to Cork City for the night.