Ring of Kerry

The Ring of Kerry is a picturesque 179 km loop drive in The West of Ireland. Some tourism websites recommend spending two days driving it, but we Zabels heed no warnings. We were going to do it in a day! YES, we did! We left our B&B in Blarney at 8 a.m., reached the ring by 9:30, and arrived at our B&B outside of Killarney around 5:30. Take that, Rick Steves!



A lake on our drive through Killarney National Park

The Atlantic Ocean along the ring

Staigue Fort

We made a quick off-road exploration to visit Staigue Fort. It's an amazing stone fort that is thought to have been built during the late Iron Age, probably somewhere between 300 and 400 AD, as a defensive stronghold for a local lord or king. Even more amazingly it's the world's coolest jigsaw puzzle since it was built with no mortar, just loose stones stacked with sheer precision. Being it was still before tourist season, we had the whole place (inside and out) to ourselves which made it that much more impressive.

Another Ring of Kerry viewing spot.
This photo is brought to you by a sleeping Will in the car and a Canon camera timer on the roof.

Our little man was awake for this stopping point.

This is what I pictured Ireland to be like and it lived up to my dreams! While we really did love the Ring of Kerry, it wasn't as breath-takingly spectacular as people made it out to be. Ireland tourism blogs advise avoiding the Ring of Kerry altogether (during peak tourist season it's overrun with coach bus tours) and driving the Ring of Beara or the ring on the Dingle Peninsula (both still on the western coast) for they're less traveled and just as picturesque. We'll have to do this on our next trip . . . .

We were about 20 miles away from our B&B for the night and nearing the end of our Ring of Kerry adventure, but both of my boys were thirsty, so we stopped in at a pub for a well-deserved refreshment. The Guinness was refreshing, the coasters absolutely enthralling, and the Cockney being spoken at the bar 100% indecipherable. Loved it!

By now I'm sure you've surmised we were driving around Ireland and not in one of those large tour buses that traverse the country on those tiny little roads. My husband has always been my hero, but now even more so. Not only did he successfully chauffeur his wife and son around a foreign country, he did it while . . .
driving on the left side of the road,
sitting in the driver's seat on the right side of the car,
shifting the manual transmission with his left hand,
listening to the British lady on our iPhone navigation app with his left ear,
listening to his wife talking over the British lady for she was holding a real map and had her own opinions with his right ear,
whipping around a zillion roundabouts (a fabulous invention that America has far too few of, might we add),
squeezing past oncoming cars on narrow, narrow Irish backroads,
and all without rental insurance!

Which brings me to . . . .

Zabel Travel Tip #4:
Always be present at the rental car counter when your husband picks up your rental car so that you can thank him for upgrading to a larger car (I've GOT to remember 'economy' translates to 'still way too small for any human being to rightfully fit inside'.), and remind him that our expat insurance only covers OUR car. Boy, were we lucky!