Ireland Days 4-5 (based in Dingle)

Day 4 - Galway to Dingle Via Foynes and Listowel We got up and headed to Foynes, which is on the Shannon River and home to the Flying Boat Museum about the Boeing 314 Clippers which landed on the river at this location in the late 1930s-early 40s. They had a full-size replica there! The original airport was also home to the first "irish coffee".

We played at a nearby playground for about 30 minutes after that. It was quite a place - a view of a river, a castle, cows and a car dealer.

From there we planned on heading straight to Dingle, but saw a road sign that said Lartigue Monorail and decided we HAD to check it out. Turns out it was a real monorail from 1888 to 1924 and the only one of its kind in the world. They have created a replica, but unfortunately no rides while we were there as it was a bit off-season. We lucked out and they had opened the museum for a special tour and they kept it open a few more minutes for us. Steve spent some time speaking with the volunteer guide. Latrigue Monorail

Pretty sure this is the only place in the world where you can go to a museum about "flying boats" and steam-powered monorails within an hour:) From there we headed to Dingle and checked into our "little house" as Nate called it. In reality it wasn't all that little but cute nonetheless. Day 5 - Dingle town and Slea Head Drive We started the day almost next door at the Dingle Ocean World aquarium (not sure how we managed to stay virtually next door to 2 different aquariums on our trip!). It was OK, it had real sharks and penguins which was pretty strange for such a small place. We then walked through town a bit and got lunch at a real pub. (This is totally normal thing to do - they are pretty much regular restaurants during the day - kids menus and all). I think Jack might like this picture when he is a bit older:)

The street our house was off of:

After lunch, since it was actually sunny, we decided to do the Slea Head Drive - a famous route/loop at the end of the Dingle Peninsula (where Dingle town is). It is known for its ancient sites and amazing scenery. We were not disappointed.. This is a view from and of the Dunberg Fort...the fort dates to 500bce!

Jack at the entrance to a "beehive" hut - dates to the iron age!

A random old building..

If you enlarge this picture, you can see a surfer down there!! There are a surprising number of surf towns around western Ireland - cold, but great waves apparently.

You may notice Jack is the only one in most pictures - Nate slept through pretty much the entire multi-hour trip:)