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This is an R+R day for me. I'm going to hang in town and do some of the Mussel festival business. The town is already quite busy at 11:30 a.m. The bars are doing a good business. We discover that the bus does not run to Killarney from Bantry until the end of May, another drawback to
an early visit. Our hope is to cut out a couple days of transition biking by getting a ride up to Killarney, allowing us three days to explore the Dingle Peninsula. No bus, but we're hoping our hostess can find a local to haul us. Much of the biking to Killarney is by
highway, and we don't relish that. We visit Bantry House and find the grounds beautiful, the house tired, and the setting overlooking the bay grand. We check Murphy's Pub around 1:30 p.m. for the scheduled jazz and the pub is nearly beyond human
habitation. The place is so packed and smoky, we can barely find our way to the bar for a beer. The trio is a notch above wedding reception caliber - keyboards, drums, trumpet. No bass and a modest singer. It is tough duty. We have a light lunch, and I return to the B+B as Mike goes biking. I spend a comfortable hour or two chatting with Ursula and her friends, Maria and Kurt and daughter Maria Katrina, over coffee and chocolates. They
are a friendly bunch, and I find out some of the attitudes of German-Irish. They view the Dutch and Belgians as the tightest people in Europe - they nurse one beer in a pub and bring out food to eat that they brought from home. They think the French are arrogant and rude - they won't speak your language until they are required to explain the bill and collect the money. Ursula turns out to be friendly and accommodating in a sort of slightly formal way. We're hoping she'll find us a ride north to get us to Dingle quickly. We finish the day with dinner downtown and "ballads" at J.J. Crowley's, which turns out to be C+W with a keyboard, sax, and bass. We have a quick drink, chalk up the confusion to a "communication" problem and head home to bed. |
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