8/16 -- Drive to Ennis

Today, we drove to Ennis, near the airport where we landed last week, to join the last 4 people on our tour and start the main tour. So far, we have been on an optional pre-trip with a subset of the whole group. On the way, we made a few stops (by a windmill, in Tra Lee and Adare) and arrived in Ennis by 3pm.

This is a scenic overlook towards the Kerry peninsula wherre
we viewed this area from afar on 8/12.

Someone built a windmill that was only useful
 for a few years and then it fell into disrepair.
Recently, the town council decided to restore
  it as a tourist attraction.

Our next stop was Tra Lee, famous for the song, The Rose of Tra Lee.The name is Irish for the banks of the Lee River. The story is that a young man from a wealthy family fell for the family maid and was shipped overseas to remove him from temptation. When he came back a few years later, he discovered that his Mary had died of tuberculosis and he penned the song in her honor. Now, there is an annual contest to name the 'Rose of Tralee' held every year, and this year's contest starts tomorrow. It is officially NOT a beauty contest, but the chosen girl should be under 28 and never married. It used to be she couldn't have children either, but an unwed mother won a few years ago, and a lesbian has won in the recent past, so they are getting more open. However, to emulate the original rose, apparently you have to be somewhat subservient. I asked Holly if she had ever tried, and she said she would have not lasted 2 minutes in the interview, because she is not a shrinking violet. There are lots of roses in the park dedicated to the song, so we looked around.

Church in the area.

This was the most unusual rose color we saw.

Statue to the wealthy man and the 'maid'
of his desire.

Then we were off to Adare and  lunch. There is a contest in Ireland for 'Tidiest Town' and Adare is competing for the title. It is also known for its thatched roof cottages, though it was moire difficult to locate them than we thought. We made the mistake of eating first, while the sun shone, because it was raining when we started to wander. Fortunately the rain was intermittent.

The first thatched roof house we encountered from the bus.

Another one -  notice it is not so sunny now.

The wooden porch was interesting too,

This was a washing pool in the era when clothes were washed
on rocks in public places.

A church that looks somewhat castle-like in Adare

Above and below: two more thatched cottages.

Back on the road, we passed this ruined castle:

When we reached Ennis and checked into the hotel, we learned about a nearby laundry, much less expensive than the hotel and only 5 minutes away. Since they open only 15 minutes before we are due to leave tomorrow, we packed up our dirty stuff and set off and Jim spied the following two churches that he thought were worthy of a photo.