The Gap, Ireland Day 3

Our first full day in Killarney was an adventure.  After yet another amazing breakfast at our B&B, this was waiting outside to pick us up:

We were heading to The Gap of Dunloe, which is situated in the middle of Killarney National Forrest.  The Gap itself is where the Black Mountain and Purple Mountain meet up.  You drive to and through there, or you can do what we did.

First stop, the little bus dropped us off at Ross Castle, where we wandered around for a bit checking out both the structure and the grounds.  Both beautiful.

Then we boarded a boat and headed through a couple of lakes and down a river (about an hour and a half).  The scenery was stunning, and looking at my pictures now I'm a little disappointed as they don't even begin to capture what we saw.

There was a small cafe set up at our boat drop off where we grabbed a quick drink and walked around some more to check out the sites.

Action Shot!

Then it was onto our jaunty ride.  We road (and walked) up and down some steep roads along some of the most beautiful landscape I've ever seen.  Old buildings, rolling hills, water, sheep, it was amazing.

There's the Gap

It was amazing except for our horse.  The horse pulling our jaunty was nearing retirement to put it nicely.  We were the only group that had to get out and walk, and we had to do so multiple times.  Our poor horse was getting passed with an empty cart by horses pulling full loads of people.  I spent pretty much the whole ride praying that our horse would not keel over and roll our jaunty down an embankment.  And then I worried about the horse's fate at the end of the day, if you know what I mean.

 Waiting at the bottom of the road was our little bus (well actually we waited for it, which seems standard in Ireland) and then it was back to our B&B.  That night we headed back down to the city center for the best meal of the trip thus far.  It was A-Maz-Ing.  And then we walked home in the rain :)