We were driving back to Dublin so Brian and I could catch our plane home, and so Jayson & Laurie could spend a couple more days there before getting their flight to Prague. After Killarney and Muckross House we made one more stop at the Rock of Cashel in County Tipperary. J&L came over last night – they’re just back from the Czech Republic this week – and we all agreed that though we were miserable the entire time we were at the Rock of Cashel, the visit did produce some of the best pictures from the trip. It rained – hard – the entire time we were there, and by the time we began the tour we were completely soaked.

I wish I could tell you all about the Rock of Cashel, because it really is a beautiful, fascinating place, but look: I was soaked head-to-toe, I was freezing, and I spent most of our time there either trying to protect my slightly-expensive camera from the rain or quickly, quickly snap photographs. I want to go back sometime when it’s sunny because it really was cool.

And the location – I mean, wow – you couldn’t ask for a more gorgeous, panoramic view of the Irish countryside.

But listen, as beautiful as it was, and as sad as I was for the trip to be ending, my ass was ready to get back in the car and put the heaters on my feet, as the rain had soaked my jeans, through my shoes and socks and I was freezing. After the tour ended we basically just bolted for the car.

On the last day of our vacation we drove from Kenmare back to Dublin, making a few stops along the way in pure spite of the rain. The first of our stops was Muckross House in Killarney National Park, which is a beautiful manor house built in the 19th century. Taking photos on the inside of the house is prohibited, which is a shame because it’s gorgeous. Read more about the house here.

Kenmare is a fantastic town. It’s colorful and busy, and somewhat touristy but in a really charming and quiet kind of way. We did a fair bit of shopping while we were there, because Kenmare’s main road is lined with shops, great places to stay, and pubs featuring excellent pints of Murphy’s and authentic Irish music. Kenmare is famous for its lace:

But my favorite thing that we found was this hat, which I made Brian buy for himself:

There’s so much to do in Kenmare, it being situated at the meeting place of the Ring of Kerry and the Beara Peninsula and a totally reasonable drive from Cork city, that one could make Kenmare the base for at least a week’s worth of traveling. We’re thinking about doing it next year; want to come along?