We awoke and ate breakfast of cereal and bananas, and then were driven out to Killarney national park. This turned out to be a very large area of lawns, gardens, old stone mansions, lakes, hills and woods.  It was chilly at first and we bought the girls pink Ireland jackets, but it warmed up soon. We walked at random, following a trail by a stream.  Wild azaleas were in bloom everywhere, and wild ivy and holly. There were also woods of oak and pine trees, and wild iris and wildflowers on the ground. The girls had fun exploring the different little trails that wound up and down little hills by the stream.

We then took a circle loop trail up to see Torc Falls, a pretty green waterfall that flowed down from the hills above the park. The trail gave great views of the lakes below, and this was an especially enjoyable part of the day.

We then walked to Muckross House, a 19th-century stone mansion at the center of some huge lawns and simple gardens, passing maybe a hundred bicyclists along the way. We stopped there and ate a picnic lunch on the lawns, and the girls ran around doing cartwheels on the grass.

The park reminded me of similar parks in Kassel, with the mix of gardens, lawns and well-trailed woods. It is the kind of place that they seem to have a lot in Europe but that we don’t seem to have at all in America. Parks in America are always pristine wilderness, not lawns and gardens.

We decided to walk back from the park to town.  The trail was a very nice paved bicycle path through meadows by the lake, with no cars in sight. We passed Muckross Abbey, ruins and a graveyard from a 15th-century abbey that used to be there. The surrounding area had many old rock walls that were overgrown and no longer in use.

About halfway back, we flagged down a jaunting car – a horsedrawn carriage – to take us the rest of the way back. The girls really liked this. Back in town, we walked through the tourist area downtown, stopping at a drugstore to get some medicine for Phyllis’ cold. We peeked in a church, and then made our way to St. Mary Cathedral.  There was a wedding going on, so I only took a quick look inside at the gray stone arches and clear glass windows.

From there, we caught a ride back home and ate frozen pizza and spaghetti hoops and soup for dinner. The girls jumped some more on the trampoline with Georgeena, and we turned in for the night.