Our longest trip from Killarney was out to the Dingle peninsula. It is here in our narrative that I must digress a bit. We have seen many castles throughout Ireland and in London. At most of these castles they had on display several torture devices, each more horrific than the next. Lots of time has passed since the sixteenth century and they have finally perfected the supreme torture device. It is painful beyond belief. I give you the Suzuki rental car for Ireland.
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| The Rack |
This strange torture machine deserves its own paragraph. I hit my head at least fifteen times a day on the door jamb when entering. The seat has a new feature called reverse lumbar support. Where some cars have an adjustable pad to provide extra comfort for the lower back, the engineers at Suzuki have removed all padding and have built a seat back less comfortable than The Rack from the 1500's. They have also removed any semblance of suspension so that the passengers will feel every pebble in the road. I could not believe that the Japanese could develop such a device until I learned that Suzuki also makes wheelchairs. This makes perfect business sense. Cripple thousands of drivers and you will have more customers for your wheelchairs.
Now back to Dingle. Our host at the Carriglea House is Eileen and she recommended a beach on Dingle. I proudly stated that I was from Florida and had seen my share of beaches. The Inch beach however was beautiful and contrary to its name it is many miles long. Who would of thought, Surf Ireland. We now have pictures of surfers shooting the curl on Inch. There were also folks in kayaks riding the waves. The town of Dingle is a cute touristy seaside village which is the gateway to the rest of one of the most scenic coastlines in Ireland.
Today started out with a shock. For weeks I have been drinking Guinness, Murphy's and a few other local brews, eating a full Irish breakfast almost every morning, which were followed by lunch and dinner Each of these last two meals came with their own serving of beer and chips. The shock came this morning when I couldn't get into my pants. I got them to my knees and they could rise no further. In our dark room I saw that the zipper had only traveled about 3 inches. I fought with the zipper for over a minute while mentally figuring how I could cut back on the calories. It was only then that I realized that I had grabbed Sue's black slacks.
I found my own pants and went downstairs for my full Irish breakfast. Today we toured Ross Castle and Muckross Abbey. We also walked off lunch with a predicted 15 minute walk to Dinis Cottage. This walk took us around 40 minutes. On our way back we were passed by the guy who provided the 15 minute estimate. He walked like The Roadrunner being chased by Wile E Coyote. He passed us in a blur. I would like to say he was young but he looked about my age, just in much better shape.
Tomorrow we head for Galway. This trip involves about three hours in our Japanese torture device coupled with a 20 minute ferry ride. We will have more for you when we can. Sláinte.
