Free Beer All Day

Tomorrow.

You've got to love Ireland. You've got to love the Irish. It's a land and a people full of contradictions, and that's what makes it such a fascinating place to visit. Dingle seems to characterise that as well as any other town I've visited. Some parts are new and trendy, while others seem to remain completely untouched by the passage of time. This is one of several pubs where you suspect the clientele has changed as little over the years as the place itself, the locals literally forming part of the furniture.

As always we've packed a huge amount into a few days, but it's never felt rushed ... or at least not until this evening when driving to the airport at Cork in heavy traffic with the clock ticking. Neither of us having a watch, we lingered a little too long in Dingle, the languid out of season pace of the town rather retarding our own. When I went to double check the time of my flight it was half an hour earlier than I thought, and the time of day a good half an hour later. There wasn't a lot of slack but TJ got me there in time, although in the rush of saying goodbye I managed to forget a few things, like my mobile phone and my walking shoes! I'm writing this on the train home from Manchester in my still wet running shoes!

Ever since the beginning of our trip the weather predicted for today was pretty awful so we were prepared for the worst. Although it was grey, wet and miserable it wasn't actually as bad as had been suggested. It allowed me to go for a short run and TJ to visit an important archaeological site that we managed to miss the first day. After that we spent the rest of our time exploring some of the quirky shops to be found in Dingle, a specialist Irish bookshop, a little music store supporting local and independent musicians (run by the wonderfully passionate Mazz O'Flaherty to whom I promised a bit of promotion in return for a portrait), and even a cheese shop. We take back with us very fond memories and look forward to returning some day to collect more. I'm sure we will.