Today we travel from Camp to Dublin airport by taxi, 2 trains and a bus. We started off with a wonderful breakfast of yogurt, porridge and toast.
It was yummy! He slow cooks the porridge for 1 1/2-2 hours adding milk until it’s super creamy.
Leaving the Inn
The taxi took us back to Tralee, the official start of the Dingle Way, where we’ll board the first of two trains. If you remember my post from about 9 days ago when I talked about the Rose of Tralee, and not being able to find the statue in the park, we found it today. Such a sad story.
The Kerry Protestant Hall is a19th-century building on Ashe Street in Tralee, right across from the Courthouse. Built in the 1860s by architect J.F. Fuller, this protected gem features a unique clock over its entrance.
It’s a two-story former meeting hall made of snecked (irregular sized) limestone with a pitched slate roof. The clock at the entrance really stands out.
Originally a meeting spot for the local Protestant community, it’s now privately owned and has been turned into offices and shops.
Since it’s such a historic spot, there have been talks about using it as an extension for the courthouse or even turning it into an art gallery.
Tralee Courthouse
The courthouse a historic 1834 neoclassical building on Ashe Street in County Kerry, designed by William Vitruvius Morrison. While celebrated for its architecture and iconic exterior—flanked by historic Crimean War cannons—the outdated, inaccessible facility faces ongoing debates over whether to build a new complex or refurbish the site.
It was a very long day of travel. We made it to the airport hotel only to find that we had booked the downtown hotel instead of the airport hotel of the same name. We were able to cancel the wrong one and they had a room available at the correct one, so we’re all good. The only option for food was in the hotel bar or we could take a taxi to another restaurant. We opted to stay here to eat since it’s raining off and on and we were ready to get repacked for the flight tomorrow and settled in for the night.
Total trip stats:
Trail Miles - 192
Total Miles - 224
Total steps - 532,062
Total Elevation Gained - 29,160’ (Mt Everest is 29,032’)
Total Time Hiking - 72 hrs 35 min
2 planes
4 trains
4 buses
5 taxis
16 B&B’s/Inns
What will our next home be like? Many people know the joy of living in the same place for most of their lives. Others have experienced the providential adventure of moving many times. For the Christian, this question is very real and immensely practical. Whether we have lived in the same home for many years or wandered about like windswept nomads, we are all a pilgrim people. No matter where on earth we live, life slowly and effectively teaches us that this world is not our home. As the old hymn "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" goes, "the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace."
Hebrews 11:13-16 demonstrates beautifully the pilgrim perspective of God's people. "These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”
Even during their walks of faith here on earth, they knew they were a pilgrim people. They were "strangers and exiles" here, even while sojourning in the land that God had given them.
What is so beautiful about heaven is not simply the fact that the effects of the curse (sin, death, and misery) are no longer present; what makes heaven truly heaven is the fact that God Himself is present there. This is what Hebrews says. God's pilgrim people, even while enjoying the good gifts that God had given them, realized that the gifts paled in comparison to the God of those gifts. They were pilgrims, learning to have the eyes of their souls fixed on the things of God.
This is often our struggle—not to fix our gaze on the things that are right in front of us, whether good or bad, but to fix our eyes on Christ and the better things that are to come in Him. As the pilgrims in Hebrews fixed their eyes on heavenly things, God was not ashamed of them. He was not ashamed to be called their God, nor is He ashamed of us as we fix our eyes on our homeland.
We are strangers here, pilgrims on a journey. So until we get home, let's live as sojourners and exiles, doing the work He has prepared for us, and with the eyes of our souls fixed on the things of God.
