Iveragh Peninsula, Ireland
Facebook reminded me again today about our trip to Ireland 3 years ago.
The images gave me goosebumps -- we had been staying a wonderful couple of nights in a historic resort on the Iveragh Peninsula (more commonly referred to by its road name, the Ring of Kerry).
It was totally by accident.
We stopped for tea (I think Rick Steves recommended that), and inquired about a room. Most of their rooms were QUITE expensive, but they happened to have a smaller older room in the historic wing on an upper floor at a reasonable price in mid-week. Sign us up, we thought! It was a delightful place, evoking over a century of history and return family visits summer after summer. We could see why. Their network of trails was breathtakingly lovely.
We would have stayed there again after the writing retreat on the Beara Peninsula that I attended in the middle of the trip -- -- but alas, no rooms were available at any reasonable price....maybe none at all, I'm thinking as we came back by there on a weekend.
The goosebumps came when I realized how the landscape there reminds me of Parc National du Bic (Quebec), near our "new to us" old house. It's not surprising, really.
At a gathering at the English-language library last summer in Rimouski, I was chatting with the guest of honor, a regional official involved in minority outreach for the province (English speakers are a "minority" in Quebec). He mentioned. in response to my saying we loved the area -- and one reason was the exceptional landscapes as the Appalachians dip into the sea, that some people actually talk about the Scottish Highlands as being the end of the Appalachians in geologic terms. And I'm thinking Ireland is part of that, too.
The director of Heritage Lower Saint Lawrence (a non-profit serving the English-speaking community in the region) then mentioned that must be why she loves Scotland and Ireland, too.
Places of the spirit, indeed.
The images gave me goosebumps -- we had been staying a wonderful couple of nights in a historic resort on the Iveragh Peninsula (more commonly referred to by its road name, the Ring of Kerry).
It was totally by accident.
We stopped for tea (I think Rick Steves recommended that), and inquired about a room. Most of their rooms were QUITE expensive, but they happened to have a smaller older room in the historic wing on an upper floor at a reasonable price in mid-week. Sign us up, we thought! It was a delightful place, evoking over a century of history and return family visits summer after summer. We could see why. Their network of trails was breathtakingly lovely.
We would have stayed there again after the writing retreat on the Beara Peninsula that I attended in the middle of the trip -- -- but alas, no rooms were available at any reasonable price....maybe none at all, I'm thinking as we came back by there on a weekend.
The goosebumps came when I realized how the landscape there reminds me of Parc National du Bic (Quebec), near our "new to us" old house. It's not surprising, really.
At a gathering at the English-language library last summer in Rimouski, I was chatting with the guest of honor, a regional official involved in minority outreach for the province (English speakers are a "minority" in Quebec). He mentioned. in response to my saying we loved the area -- and one reason was the exceptional landscapes as the Appalachians dip into the sea, that some people actually talk about the Scottish Highlands as being the end of the Appalachians in geologic terms. And I'm thinking Ireland is part of that, too.
The director of Heritage Lower Saint Lawrence (a non-profit serving the English-speaking community in the region) then mentioned that must be why she loves Scotland and Ireland, too.
Places of the spirit, indeed.
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