Irish Rest

From Scotland, we headed by car ferry to Ireland.  It turns out that travelling by rental car on a car ferry from Scotland to the Republic of Ireland (as opposed to Northern Ireland which is part of the United Kingdom) is not a common thing to do!  We rented our car through Enterprise because they advertised that cars could be taken to the Republic of Ireland.  However they didn't advertise that special paper work only available from the Enterprise central office during regular business hours was needed.  This was a problem because we picked our car up on a Bank Holiday and everything was closed.  In addition, Enterprise did not advertise in advance that they charged a 125 GBP fee (that's about $195)  for travel out of the UK! After much haggling we were able to get the fee waived.  We made a tenttaive plan to pick the paperwork up in Scotland before we left for Ireland.  However, when I called from our friend's home in Scotland to make arrangements to pick up the paperwork, I was informed that it could take hours to get it!  AARGH!  Again, after several phone calls and much haggling, Enterprise agreed that they could email the paperwork to us!  Lesson learned:  flying is easier!

Our ferry to Ireland was uneventful.  On arriving we headed down to Kerry to a "self catering" cottage we had rented.  In the UK "self catering" means that the cottage has a kitchen and that no meals are provided.  They are usually a great deal.  Our cottage was an old train signal box.  It was about 10 feet square on two floors with the kitchen in an above ground basement and the bedroom/sitting room upstairs.  It really looked cute online!  Unfortunately, it was only OK.  It had a lot of potential but was overstuffed with knick knacks and not thoroughly clean.  Even so, we enjoyed our Ireland stay.  Our cottage was in the quaint town of Glenbeigh and near a fabulous beach.

We really took the time to rest from our travels.  But we also drove the Ring of Kerry.  We especially enjoyed visiting a couple of ancient ring forts.  We visited the Dingle Peninsula which was really a highlight.  We tried to visit a museum about the Irish Potato Famine in Skibereen, but it was closed because of budget cuts.  We also road our bikes around Killarney National Park.  But mostly we enjoyed some time to sleep in and relax.

Here are our Ireland Pictures