We came back into town and visited the Killarney House. The house proper is only open for guided tours and the 4PM tour was too far away for us. However, there was a wide ranging exhibit detailing all manner of things about the National Park. After we toured this exhibit we were struck with a dilemma. Should we sit in traffic for a half hour or more or stay in town. Killarney has a very large roundabout i the center of town with at least six roads feeding into it. This clogs us fast and stays clogged for hours. We chose to stroll through town and go to our dinner location earlier than planned. The Laurels has a pub and a restaurant so we availed ourselves of both services. The drinks went down easily and dinner was tasty. We had decided to visit Paddy Sheehan's pub and our Jaunty Car driver verified that this was the best pub in town. We were not excited to see that the music did not start until 9 PM. It was already busy at 7:30 and we were forced to sit on tiny stools. We were able to upgrade our seats to a booth and then to a nicer booth. People continued to file in and by 9 the place was shoulder to shoulder and any chance of seeing the band was long gone. I had to muscle my way through people to take the videos. The band showed up and diddled abut till 9:15 when they finally started playing. They sang three songs and then took a break.
Hugh O'Flattery, the pope's pimpernel (using the definition "daring or evasive") was instrumental behind the scenes in WW2. He saved thousands of Jews and Allied soldiers in Italy
A fancy entrance
This huge lawn reminded us of the Ling Walk in Windsor
Planted in flowers
The bees are loving this great weather
Hey ladies!
The central courtyard
Taxidermy of the residents of the park
Horace the hedgehog
Ample maps and displays
Natural history tidbits such ad the Killarney fern over collected to the point of near extinction and now its location is kept a secret
Sandy the sandpiper
There was a series of photographs that I stole this image from
A red deer sculpture made of bark, copper wire and sticks
Not the biggest church in town
We will be back later, Paddy
With such beautiful windows one would think it was a church
Colorful streets as per the Irish norm
Not a phone but a defibrillator
We had fun thinking of the body parts and how they could tell stories. We came up with ears for the music, eyes for the landscape, liver for the whiskey and beer, legs for the dancing and the heart for the love of their fellows
Tiny balconies
We stopped into the duck store
The Laurels for happy hour and dinner
Low clearance for a tall bartender
Wild indeed
We were some of the first customers
This was the was to the loos
Lots of crocks, one was for sweet sherry
The pub filled up but the restaurant side was still empty
Nice decorations
Great window
The feared Kracken!
700 years!
The top of the well
It is locked up so no late night cures
We are inside Paddy Sheehan's and there are even more nice windows
A shrine to Irish pubbery
Note the small stools and low down table in front right
An homage to the traditional Irish musicians
Arghhh gimme me a Guinness
The drinks menu
I decided to splurge and get the Middleton Very Rare, a blend of vintages aged fron 12 to 33 years
Filling up by 8:30
Sinead O Connor
We thought for sure he was in the band
But no, this is the band
Yippie, they have started
Playing the harmonica, guitar and accordion
Belting it out
Heading back home now that the band has taken a break
