Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Day 4 - Blarney Castle


We awoke this morning (still a bit early for our liking) to find a beautiful fine Irish misty rain falling – our first Irish rain! After a humungous breakfast we were off and running by 8am heading for our lunchtime stop at Blarney Castle. CJ was umming and arring about whether she would climb up to kiss the Blarney Stone. Anyone who has heard the story of her Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb would understand any reticence she may have. After much soul searching she bit the bullet, girded her loins and off we marched to slay the dragon of her fears. At this point I’d like to say that I erred somewhat in telling her it was a piece of cake, not scary, no problems etc etc. I was almost as scared as she was! Last time I did the deed there were heaps of people in a slow moving line which managed to hide the steep slippery stairs, the large drop, the uneven surface and massive gap when you kiss the actual blarney stone. Anyway…with a bit of persuading we both managed it and (I think) Carly is happy she went through with it.
 
 


After all that excitement, we managed a little shopping, some eating, a short walk, and then back on the bus to head for Killarney in County Kerry. Martin, our tour guide and bus driver, is a very entertaining fellow, giving us ample commentary and often a song or two to while away the hours on the road. He is amazingly knowledgeable and seems to manage the duel job of driving and commentating very well…so far, anyway!

After arriving at our hotel in Killarney Carly & I headed out to explore the town and continually came across O’Shea establishments – this certainly is O’Shea country. Everyone is very friendly and we are having a great time.
 
Dinner in the hotel was a slightly subdued affair and we decided to give the night’s entertainment a miss as it didn’t start til almost 10pm so it was back to our room where I introduced CJ into the mysteries of washing out clothes in hotel rooms – she seemed to think I was going to do her laundry too…bahahaha!

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