Well, I didn’t sleep well at all! I woke up so many times being hot and tossing and turning in the bed. We ate our breakfast we purchased at Aldi and packed up and headed out. We changed the plans a bit and stopped at King John’s Castle before leaving Limerick. We had a discount card, or so we thought, from the Bunratty Castle to use. But, I gave the card to the man at the entrance and he didn’t charge us anything? That was a neat surprise, but I think it was his mistake!
King John’s Castle in Limerick
The castle tour and exhibition hall is great with a lot of interactive opportunities for the kids (and me too!) In the castle grounds there were some actors and they sang us a Gregorian chant while in character. The castle castle took decades to complete, and was started in 1212. Actually, King John never saw, much less lived in, the castle. King John’s Castle underwent many sieges (1642, 1651, 1690/1691), yet was still livable , with some restorations, until the end of the 20th century.
King John’s Castle in Limerick
The kids dressed up like Viking and Gaelic soldiers at King John’s Castle
My daughter practicing her fighting skills on this dummy.
King John’s Castle, standing in what used to be the Great Room.
The view from the top of the corner tower of King John’s Castle looking out into the town of Limerick
The kids in the pillory at King John’s Castle. I remember taking so many of these with my sister in Colonial Williamsburg.
Touring the Dingle Peninsula of Ireland
Next we headed to the Maharees beaches on the Dingle Peninsula which took us about 2 hours driving. We drove on some more narrow roads and once our Garmin told us to turn into the ocean! (We are convinced the Garmin is trying to kill us at least once per day.) We found one of the beaches and climbed over some rocks to walk on the sand. Ok, so the water is FREEZING, and I only put my toes in! But, the kids enjoyed running in the edge looking for seashells, special rocks, and beach glass. The wind was so strong that I had to put my rain jacket hood on. The beach was covered with small, clear with 4 purple circles on top, dead jellyfish and seaweed. We only saw a couple other families walking on the beach and about 15 people learning to kite surf and surf that were wearing wet suits.
The kids are so happy to be at a beach.
Getting our feet wet in the Atlantic Ocean at the Maharees Beaches.
Our family photo at the Dingle Peninsula beach, the wind is so strong!
We ate lunch at a cute place on the beach called Spillane’s Bar and Restaurant. We shared meals and so only spent 21.40 Euro. (We had some snacks that we purchased from Aldi while we were traveling.)
A beautiful landscape we drove by, no wonder Ireland is called the Emerald Isle.
Headed onto Killarney
We drove another hour to Killarney and checked into our hotel. This hotel is in city centre and so we had to figure out overnight street parking. We walked around a little and then decided to eat dinner at an Italian Restaurant called Salvadores and we enjoyed a nice meal for 23.90 Euro. We shared again since we weren’t too hungry, those cheap snacks have really come in handy. Our hotel had a hot tub, that was not patrolled, so the kids wanted to enjoy the opportunity before going to bed. I used the gym equipment (a rowing machine) while the kids and husband enjoyed the relaxing hot tub.
Tomorrow we are hiking around the Ring of Kerry, so we needed to get in bed a bit earlier tonight.
