Dingle Peninsula - Ireland 2014 - page 392

Tralee
While Killarney is the tour-bus capital of County Kerry, Tralee (Tra-LEE) is its workaday
marketandtransithub.FordriverszippingbetweenDingleandGalway,thisamiabletown
near the base of the Dingle Peninsula is worth an hour's stop.
Thetowncomes alive forthefamousRose ofTralee International Festival, usually held
in mid-August. It's a celebration of arts and music, culminating in the election of the Rose
ofTralee—themostbeautifulwomanatthefestival(nomatterwhichcountryshewasborn
in, as long as she has Irish heritage).
Sights in Tralee
▲ Kerry County Museum
Easily the best place to learn about life in Kerry, this museum (located in Ashe Memorial
Hall in the center of town) has three parts: Kerry slide show, museum, and medieval-town
walk.
Cost and Hours: €5; June-Sept daily 9:30-17:30; Oct-May Tue-Sat 9:30-17:00, closed
Sun-Mon; tel. [phone], www.kerrymuseum.ie .
Visiting the Museum: Get in the mood by relaxing for 10 minutes through the Enya-
style continuous slide show of Kerry's spectacular scenery. Then wander through 7,000
years of Kerry history in the museum (well-described, no need for free headphones). The
Irish joke that when a particularly stupid guy moved from Cork to Kerry, he raised the
average IQ in both counties—but this museum is pretty well done. It starts with good
background info on the archaeological sites of Dingle, progresses through Viking artifacts
found in the area, and goes right up to a video showing highlights of the Kerry football
team (a fun look at Irish football, which is more like rugby than soccer). Good coverage
is given to adventurous Kerryman Tom Crean, who survived three Antarctic expeditions
with Scott and Shackleton (see sidebar on here ) . The lame finale is a stroll back in time on
a re-creation of Tralee's circa-1450 Main Street. Before leaving, horticulture enthusiasts
will want to ramble through the rose garden in the adjacent park.
Blennerville Windmill
On the western edge of Tralee, just off the N-86 Dingle road, spins a restored mill ori-
ginally built in 1780. Its eight-minute video tells the story of the windmill, which ground
grain to feed Britain as that country steamed into the Industrial Age. In the 19th century,
Blennerville was a major port for America-bound emigrants. It was also the home port
where the Jeanie Johnston was built. This modern-day replica of a 19th-century ship tours