Dingle and the Dingle Peninsula

Monday marked the day I was most looking forward to! The town of Dingle and the Dingle Peninsula!!! Dingle is known for being one of the cutest towns in all of Ireland. Apparently Ireland had a “Tidy-town” competition 30 years ago and all the towns painted their storefronts bright colors. Dingle was charming and full of friendly people.

Dingle

Our drive into town had been long so we stopped in at John Benny Moriarty’s for lunch and visited Murphy’s Ice Cream. I had Bailey’s and coffee ice cream… I could die a happy woman! We also visited the Dingle Music Shop before heading out for the scenic drive around the peninsula. The shop owner was a riot and he had lots of helpful tips on where I should look online for an Irish flute.

Most of the scenic drive was on a one lane road that you had to pull over if you met another car, but it was worth every stressful kilometer! I thought the Oregon coast was beautiful, but it pales in comparison to the Dingle Peninsula! The hillsides are dotted with sheep and small homes, but the coastline is the most spectacular. Rocky cliffs give way to sandy coves and the water is the most beautiful shade of blue I’ve ever seen outside of a magazine. That was what most surprised me. You wouldn’t expect that color of water anywhere but the Caribbean!

We were fortunate enough to get sunshine the whole trip. I got to put my feet in the Atlantic Ocean from the west coast. It was as cold as the Pacific on the Oregon coast, but very worth the numb feet! We really enjoyed the drive and frequently stopped along the road to snap pictures of the beautiful scenery.

When we got back to Dingle we walked all over the cute little streets. We visited several of the small shops and chatted with some very lovely shop owners. Once we’d worked up an appetite again we ducked into Murphy’s Pub (not to be confused with the ice cream shop) for dinner and a pint before heading home.

It rained most of the way home and we were very thankful it had held off while we toured the town. The best part of Monday was getting to skype with our boys! We’ve been trying to chat with them over the internet every few days. It makes the ocean seem not-so-big when you can see their smiling faces and see the projects they’ve been working on at school. They enjoy telling us about every little detail of their lives since we’ve been gone.