THE BEST B&B EVER!

Sept 17, 2014.
We much enjoyed Deer Park Inn, not the least of which was the salmon and scrambled eggs for breakfast.  Yum.  It was quite a homey place, with pictures of the owners’ three kids in various stages of growing up.  We did, however, have to look away when confronted by Thomas Kincaid paintings.
Today we continue our counterclockwise tour of the island, heading about due south to Castlemaine in County Kerry.  There’s only one problem.  The mouth of the River Shannon extends from the ocean all the way into Limerick to the east.  It’s a looong way around (about 150 km), and there’s no bridge from the north shore to the south.  However, there is a ferry, accessed just east of the town of Killimer, going over to Tarbert on the south shore.  Not quite as big as the liner that brought us over from Scotland.

When we ended up next to that tanker, all I could think was “ship, don’t do any rolling now!”  The trip across only took 10 minutes, a lot better than the 2 1/2 hours by road.
Once in Kerry, we realized we would be too early to check into our next B&B, so we took a side trip to the Ardfert (sorry, every time I see that I think of a Cockney saying “hard fart”) Cathedral, about ten miles from Tralee.  Love these names.  A monastery was reputedly founded here by St. Brendan ‘The Navigator’ in the 6th century.  Three medieval churches are incorporated into what we see today.  The cathedral dates from the 12th-17th centuries, with a Romanesque west doorway, a huge 13th century east window, and a row of nine lancets in the south wall.  Battlements were added in the 15th century.  A bit of pre-12th century masonry is visible in the north wall.  Facing east window, below. 

The lancet windows and a curious sign.  What do they think people are going to do; sneak in here in the middle of the night with picks and shovels?

There were graves in the adjacent grounds, no violating the above sign.  A lot of them were rather elaborately festooned with mementos.

One of the two smaller churches is late Romanesque, and other is a plain 15th century structure.  The cathedral (on right, with the Romanesque door) was in active use until the mid-19th century.


All in all, an interesting place.  But!  Enough ruins gazing.  Time for lunch!  We ate at Kate Browne’s Pub just down the road from the cathedral.  Just sandwiches (huge), salad, chips, and, of course, a beer and dessert!  Quite good.

Afterwards we detoured to view another ruin, whose name shall be lost forever,

but couldn’t get very close because of an electrified fence!  You can just make out the wires behind Chuck.  Somebody’s serious about no trespassing.

Having tardied long enough, it was time to set off for THE BEST B&B EVER, near Castlemaine.

Now, we’ve stayed at a lot of very nice B&B places on this trip and others.  But we think this one was the best.  Inside and out it was beautiful.  We scored the poster bed.


The house was gorgeous, with very large rooms and lots of woodwork and light.


But what really made it were the owners, Gerry and Phena, who easily were the liveliest and most gracious hosts.  We really felt “at home.”  Phena is the daughter of Eileen, the other half of the namesake parents for whom the place is named (Tom & Eileen’s, in case you didn’t see the sign).  They ran it prior to G&P taking over.
I settled down to do some blogging, and spent 4-5 hours creating entries.  I was spellchecking it when I brushed the trackpad and everything disappeared.  Vanished.  Auto backup was not working.  Nada.  I was (a) sick, (b) furious, (c) ready to quit blogging forever, or (d) all of the above.  Yeah, pick d.  I didn’t figure out until much later that somehow the trackpad had been turned on.  Now, I have never used the thing in the three years I’ve owned this computer, and know that it hadn’t been operative previously.  Apparently, swiping it sent some signal to the computer to wipe out the current work.  So how did it mysteriously get turned on?  I dunno, but I made sure to turn it off and to regularly back up my drafts.
I needed beer, and fast.  We went in to Castlemaine, which is the Irish equivalent of a one-horse town.  Only one place open (literally).  A very small pub with only one person in it.  Still, Phena had told us we could get dinner there.  And so we did.  And it turned out to be quite decent, although nothing to rave about.  And, of course, they did have beer!
When we got back to the B&B, everything seemed curiously dark.  There had been a local power failure.  Phena met us with flashlights, and we made our way to the rooms.  About a half hour later, the power came back on.  Just in time to turn the lights off and go to bed!