IRELAND, DAY 3: MINARD CASTLE, THE DINGLE PENINSULA, AND SLEA HEAD DRIVE

 July 6, 2024

Our plan had been to start the day at Blarney Castle, but when we tried to get tickets online, they were sold out. That's okay--we didn't feel a great need to kiss the Blarney Stone and taking one thing off the schedule made for a more relaxed day.

We left the B&B at about 9:30 or 10:00 and headed west towards the Dingle Peninsula.

Our first stop on the Dingle Peninsula was Minard Castle.

To get there from the main road, we drove down a very narrow single-lane road. Every now and then there was a turnout so two cars could pass, but in most spots even our tiny car seemed to hug both sides of the road, and if two cars meet in an area like this, they both have to pull over into the weeds in order to pass.

Eventually, we came upon a windswept hill crowned by a lonely mid-16th century monolithic three-story ruin . . .

. . . that looks over a desolate bay of the cold Irish Sea.

PORTUGAL: CABO DA ROCA, CASCAIS, AND A LISBON PARK FESTIVAL

 June 23, 2022

Before returning to Lisbon, our guide took us to what she called "the end of the world" (known more officially as Cabo da Roca), the westernmost point of Portugal and, in fact, of continental Europe. A lighthouse began operating at this point in 1772.

PORTUGAL, LISBON: WATERFRONT, SANTO ANTONIO CHURCH, AND GREAT FOOD

 June 22, 2022

Lisbon is a very walkable, pedestrian-friendly city. Most of what we wanted to see was within a few miles of our hotel. After our l-o-n-g day of travel, we still had just enough energy left to walk to what we thought were fairly close-by sites.

So off we went.

We passed by the Santa Justa Elevator (below, left), built between 1900 and 1902 to make it easier for Lisbonians (Is that a word?) and tourists to move between two levels of the city. We had read about the long lines and since there was nothing on the upper level that we wanted to see, we decided to bypass it.  I regret that now. It's such an iconic landmark; we should have investigated it more closely. 

We kept on walking down the pedestrian-only street, following our GPS directions to the main cathedral.