We have a lot of homework and reading to do for class this week and leave for Northern Ireland on Wednesday at 2 after 5 hours of class so this one will be mostly pictures. Plus I just wrote about 3 pages of journals for class tomorrow so… that is far too much writing as is, so just a couple notes about what these things are…

 Muckross House – renovated for Queen Victoria’s visit in the 1800s sometime… the family spent 6 years renovating the house for her visit and then went bankrupt because they were expecting a title in return however the king died and in her heartbreak the queen never granted the title.

Ring of Kerry – gorgeous loop around Kerry with various stops like Skellig Michael, a monastery built between the 6^th and 9^th centuries on this rock (I hesitate to say island) off the coast of Ireland. They built houses and staircases all over the island and had to fish for their food because there was no soil. Unfortunately we couldn’t take the boat to the island because of the weather, so I only have a picture of a picture. There were also random scenic spots we could just yell out to the bus driver and he would pull over so we got shots like those below.

 On Saturday we drove around the Dingle Peninsula, again it was gorgeous. I didn't really think of Ireland as having beaches, not sure why considering it is an island, but today's drive was more than enough to prove me wrong.  Those black dots in the picture below are surfers, yes, surfers.

 Sunday we headed out of Killarney and stopped at Ross Castle and the Cliffs of Moher on our way back . Ross Castle was built in the 15th century and is full of priceless antiques like 14th century wood chests and lead/pewter plates (why the average age was so low for the high kings/lords).

We also went to a play at the National Folk Theater. It was all in Gaelic, but it was still very easy to figure out what was going on and the music and dancing was wonderful!

 The Cliffs of Moher were beautiful!! Especially if you ignored the sign to the left and walked along the "path" next to the cliffs. The cliffs rise 400 - 700 feet off the water. Next to this sign is a little monument to those who have died on the cliff, but being the intelligent college students we are, we passed it by anyway!

Thats it for now. We leave for Northern Ireland tomorrow (with warnings not to say that we go to a Catholic school and to leave all of our St. Bens/St. Johns clothing behind) and dont get back til Sunday but then we have a weekend off so I can spend more time on a blog.

michelle