september 11-12

Dingle

After my night in Cork I took a train and bus to Dingle on west coast of Ireland. After several days of bad weather, the clouds started to clear as I rode onto the fabled Dingle peninsula. Uniformed school kids goofed off behind me as I snapped pictures of the spectacular, sun-lit countryside out the window. There is a cliche made by most travel and guidebook writers that Ireland may be mostly grass, but it sports 40 shades of green. That's bullshit. There are at leasts 1,000.
The ancient fields shone like sunlight through spring leaves. Clouds cast a oblong shadows on the hills that only intensified the places where light gave the grass an almost ethereal glow.
After an hour glued to the window, we decended along a beautiful bay into Dingle town where I hopped off a 10 euro bus that had given me the most scenic views of the trip so far.
The next day was my best in Ireland. I rented a bicycle and rode the 45 km peninsula loop past ancient forts and medieval churches built along the dramatic Irish coast. Midway through, I passed the westernmost point in Europe, where the Dublin pub singer said he once drove just to be the last man in Europe to watch the sun set. There's always the chance that guy was full of shit. But if he is, I don't care.
I'd spent the previous evening in a pub with a drunk, French fisherman named Andre Jean whose English was worse than my French. He was from Brittany, and I saw his boat, L'Orient, as I rode out of Dingle.
I saw building after ancient building with seven-foot thick walls made from nothing but rock without any mortar. I rode pass the steep tracts where farmers first hauled sand an seaweed to make the rock studded clay arable. I had lunch on the beach.
The weather was great and I took a lot of pictures. I'll post a slide show of them as soon as I get a chance.
I'd spent the previous evening in a pub with a drunk, French fisherman named Andre Jean whose English was worse than my French. He was from Brittany, and I saw his well worn trawler, L'Orient, as I rode out of Dingle.