Tralee Town in Kerry the Kingdom

Our four hour drive from County Galway to County Kerry turned into a five hour drive when we were diverted into downtown Limerick due to an accident on the bypass that closed down southbound traffic. One extra hour of bumper-to-bumper traffic made us feel like we were in the thick of work traffic. What a lovely reminder that we are retired and free from those headaches.

Days 10, 11 and 12 of our holiday, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 24, 25, 26 July will be in Tralee, the county town for County Kerry.

Here's our Manor West Hotel. Due to some problems with finding a room for us, they upgraded us to one of the penthouse suites, so we have a lovely room with a lovely balcony.

The Rose of Tralee Festival doesn't take place until next month in Tralee and maybe it's a good thing, since the roses didn't look that great in the rose garden.

Maybe in a month's time they will come back again, but they looked a little "tired" at this time. (Perhaps they just have them shipped in, since it's mainly a huge parade and an extensive beauty pageant.)

Actually the hydrangea are at their peak right now. We have never seen such large plants and such deep colors. Here's a red bush...

And here's a blue bush...

We did a lot of resting up in Tralee, but did manage to take in the national folk theater's 2009 presentation called Tearmann ("tar-mahn"). The story was based on life in the "poor houses" of Ireland during the potato famine. The music was performed by a small orchestra that used typical Irish instruments and the songs and dialogue were all in Gaelic. The organization, Siamsa Tire ("she-EM-sha TEER-rah"), emphasizes Irish history and culture in all their productions. (Sorry, no photographs were allowed and their website doesn't have many photos to show either.)

We also stopped back to St. Stephen and St. Johns Church in Castleisland where we wanted to look for records for Great-grandfather Mathew O'Keane (Keane), but the historian wasn't available. They were very good about taking down our contact information and search information with a promise to get back to us by email later in the week. (Looks like the internet is becoming more and more of a resource.)

And we should confess that along the way, besides great Irish meat, poultry and vegetables, we have also found that "Four Star Pizza" is a very good pizza franchise. Below is the "American Special," comprised of extra cheese and double pepperoni. Bon appetit!
Tomorrow we head for our final stay---Kinsale, County Cork.