We set off on our trip to the Emerald Isle on Sunday 23rd June. Flying from Birmingham Airport takes a mere 50 mins but unfortunately, due to building works at the airport you currently have to arrive 3 hours before your flight. Ridiculous. It was very busy and we felt very happy that we’d booked our Fast Track Security pass and sailed past the winding queues like smug things. It’s terribly chaotic and there’s no air conditioning so it was deeply unpleasant sitting in Wetherspoons feeling like we were trapped in an over-crowded, tropical glasshouse.
We met up with our fellow travel companions here..Pam and Adrian and Joyce and Enid. After a short delay, our Ryan Air flight set off across the Irish Sea. We landed at Cork Airport which was shiny and modern, calm and quiet and very European feeling. We picked up our 2 smart hire cars and then drove the 1.5 hours to Tralee. It’s very easy , straight along the N22 all the way! The road was very quiet and the scenery green and pastoral. Towards Killarney it became a little wilder with impressive mountains and lakes all around.
When we arrive in Tralee it was about 6-30pm and we went straight to buy some supplies from Lidl whilst Jane, Adrian and Joyce went to collect Fish n Chips from Quinlan’s fish bar!
We arrived at our fabulous Airbnb just outside Tralee and ate our tea and then unpacked. As we settled in, it became apparent that we had some First World problems: no WiFi code, no bedside lamps, no plugs next to mirrors to do our hair. With the help of lovely Jessica, the owner of our Airbnb,we solved as many of these as we could and settled down to watch Scotland play Euros football on the big telly with a glass of red wine. Unfortunately, nobody could help Scotland win their vital match against Hungary.
When we went to bed another problem emerged…we had a bobbly bed sheet which was very irritating and would need dealing with.
In the morning Jessica and her little girl, Alex, came to show us the ropes and by about 10-30 we were ready to start our first day here in Tralee.
Pam had put together an itinerary on a spreadsheet (good girl) and today we’d be off to do our big shop and also to visit a windmill. However, in a radical move we decided to mix it up and so off we set for Blennerville Windmill. This is only 1.5miles down the road and is a most excellent tourist attraction. Before we were able to go into the windmill we had to watch an audio visual presentation on the history of the place. It was an interesting introduction and we learned about how the English discovered how easy it was to grow corn here for exporting to Britain where there was huge demand brought about by the Industrial Revolution. The Irish peasants, who did all the work, lived a very poor life on tiny plots of land and eating a diet of potatoes and bread. But then the 1845 Potato famine made things even worse and 1 million people died as well as 1 million emigrating to ‘The New World’ on so called Coffin Ships. No wonder we aren’t very popular although to be fair , everyone so far has been very friendly.
Next we had to visit an exhibition which didn’t do much to uplift the spirits. The windmill fell into ruin but was rebuilt in the 1990s and people learned the skills they needed to build all the lovely houses we see around here today.
We climbed up the windmill itself using the steep ladder stairs and learned all about its workings. It’s the tallest windmill in the UK and Ireland and has huge sails but at the moment they’re not turning.
Next we visited the Model Railways exhibition and then walked along the canal which runs all the way into Tralee and it was lovely to be out in the sunshine and fresh air. There was some good bird life including egrets, herons, oystercatchers and a Godwit!!
Some of the graffiti on the footpath didn’t seem terribly friendly, however the little tea shop and gallery was very sweet and we had a nice cup of tea and fruit cake.
Our final stop of the day was a trip into Dunnes in the town centre. We were very excited to go here as we’d had a very good visit to a Dunnes when we were in Belfast. It didn’t disappoint and it had a particularly splendid Ladies Department. The food section was also very upmarket , like Booths, and we stocked up on supplies for our BBQ tonight. I don’t think we can bear the thought of doing a ‘big shop’ after that so we will be eating out a lot!
We even bought a new bedsheet to replace the bobbly one. Thank goodness!
Where shall we go to next? 