Sunday April 16

Breakfast, prepared by our hostess Maura and her staff, can only be described as a little bit of Heaven to start the day. Besides the usual hearty Irish fry up breakfast, Maura provides many delicious treats and options. We started with local yogurt, local honey and shaved almonds, followed by, for myself Dover sole on the bone....OMG...Rory had a huge plate of bangers, rashers, puddings and eggs..terrific breads and toast with lashings of tea and coffee...what a start to our day, to be repeated daily..

We left the house at 9:30am and drove to Killarney for Easter Sunday mass at the cathedral, built in the mid 19th C. Less than an hour later the non-believers and heathens joined us back on the bus and we headed off for the Ring of Kerry. No rain at all and the sun broke through several times as the day itself was very mild, about 52 degrees. As always the scenery is splendid and we stopped regularly for photos. Lunch in the charming village of Sneem, pronounced "Schneem" was the best chowder ever...Rory had bought two baguettes with two lovely cheeses for sampling later, at a bakery, and left the bloody stuff in the restaurant behind us...too bad, local cheeses...the food here in Ireland is amazing...a long way from the bacon and cabbage days.. It was a long day and an hour later we were back in Kenmare about 6pm. We had a dinner reservation for everyone at Packy's Restaurant in town, and though a bit pricey was fantastic by everyone's account. Rory had the roasted cod in lemon butter and I had the halibut special, it was as tender as anything and perfectly cooked.
I regaled everyone later with an impromptu concert back at the Lodge for about an hour and all headed for bed just about midnight. I slept the sleep of the Gods...