Ireland and The Dingle Peninsula

Day 5 continued:  We started our tour of the peninsula.  Our guide book had us reset our tripometer at a certain point, and then gave us exact distances to certain sites or markers.  

One of our stops was this old potato plantation.  

On the other side of the road from the plantation was this view of the coast.  This was the sight of the opening scenes of the movie Far and Away.  Now go and watch it to make sure.  I did.

We chilled for a few minutes on the coast.  

And Pete looked for.... well, I'm not sure what he looked for.

We got in a traffic jam coming around a bend.  Two cars tried to pass at the same time, and although they didn't hit each other, their cars came so close to each other that they couldn't move them.  So we waited about 20 minutes while they figured it out, and I took a picture of this cross in the meantime. 

While we were stuck these two sea gulls walked along the cement wall and stopped right at my window.  

The views of the coast were amazing.

The islands behind us are the Blasket Islands.  Still part of Ireland, they had their own way of life.  No more than 160 people lived on the islands and spoke Gaelic, and in 1953 the government forced them to the mainlands.  The hill to the right of the picture is Dunmore Head, the westernmost point in Europe.  Keep heading west, you'll hit New York. 

The villagers on the Blasket Islands had no cemetery, so they travelled to the mainland to bury the dead in this cemetery.

Just because.

One of the most interesting stops for us was the Blasket Islands Centre.  It was full of information regarding the villagers of the islands.  The Blasket Islands were very difficult to get to, and even more difficult to live on.  Each family owned a cow, a goat and a little bit of land.  There was one school that all the children attended, and most left the island with little education.  We purchased a book written by one of the men who was forced to the mainland, and I can't wait to read it.   This is a Bible taken from the islands.

Dunmore Head at the top of the picture.

The island behind us is the main island of the Blasket Islands.  You can see it's almost impossible to get ashore because of the huge cliffs.

This is the ruined Church of Kilmalkedar. It was built in the 12th century, and stood behind  a tall stone with a notch cut out of it, that was there 900 years before the church was built. The stone marked a "holy spot" and people would come to "seal a deal" here, touching thumbs through the hole and swearing to God.

The church was littered with these stones, which were head stones.  Most are erupting from the ground, and some have even come out of the ground so far that you can see underneath them.  Creepy.

This was such an amazing little ruin. 

And this was the last fish and chips meal I ate.  Somehow, I managed to forget to take a picture of the three meals I ate at the beginning of the trip.  This stuff was so good.

And that's the trip!  It was the best birthday I have ever had- and I couldn't have had it without my parents watching the kids back in Germany for us.  Thanks so much!  And thanks to Pete for taking me on my dream vacation!