11th April 2011: Ireland Day Twenty-Five.

This afternoon our fellow travelling partner, Dominique who has been visiting her Niece in Switzerland, will rejoin us. So this morning Michelle and I have decided to do a little exploring of the South part of Ireland in the Killarney area before collecting her from Cork airport.

Michelle and I have discovered our optimum travelling positions, Michelle drives and I navigate. Seems that there is less stress for all concerned when we assume these roles. It was a cool morning but the drive was spectacular, the narrow country roads are just the way to get a good feel for Ireland.

About an hour into our drive, we pull up at a little café in Fermoy and pick up a cup of coffee each. The owners of the café are very friendly and ask us where we’re heading. When we said “Killarney” they recommend that we give it a miss. Apparently, it’s where all the American tourists go and there really isn’t much to see. Michelle and I are happy to change our plans and visit Lismore that the café owners said would be more to our liking.

Lismore is a quaint little town with an ancient castle that is accompanied by acres of magnificent gardens. We pretty much had the place to ourselves and spent a good two hours wandering around and admiring the extensive gardens, quite spectacular. We decided to move on to Blarney to have a look around there and visit the castle and maybe even kiss the stone.

Blarney is on the north west side of Cork and is a busy little place in it’s own right. We had some trouble locating the castle as it isn’t very well posted, no real directions of where to go to find it. In the end, we parked the car and wandered around town to see if we could find it on foot.

As we walked around town still unable to locate a signpost or a remote hint of where the castle might be, we started to wonder if it was actually existed.  Maybe this was one of those Irish jokes they liked to play on everyone, “come to Blarney to see the castle and kiss the stone, you’ll have the time of your life…” Thousands of tourists wandering around their town bumping into each other and asking, “do you know where the castle is?” the locals, sitting in their pubs laughing at all the “idiots” whilst they enjoyed a nice pint of Guinness. It didn’t help when I said to Michelle, “there you go….” and pointed at a sign that announced “The Blarney Castle Hotel” “nobody said anything about it being an actual castle, its really a pub”

Eventually, we came across a small sign indicating the way and we discovered that there is actually a castle, much to our relief. Climbing the 100 odd stairs to the top was an experience in itself, it was pretty cold and the stairs very uneven and narrow. It can be a little hairy as well for people who don’t particularly like heights but the views are spectacular.

When we reached the top, an attendant said, “right then, who’s game enough to kiss the stone?” I had a quick look and decided I didn’t particularly want to lay down on my back, haul myself out a few feet over the edge of the castle, have someone I have never met before keep me safe by holding my ankles and kiss something that is over 400 years old. “Not today sir, thank you very much” I guess some people would be surprised that we would go to so much effort to get there and then not go that extra distance to kiss the stone………..I think I can speak for both of us when I say, we aren’t disappointed.

We left Blarney behind and drove into Cork to collect Dominique and then head back to Clonmel, it was great to see her again and she was full of stories about her short trip to Switzerland.

We have decided to extend our stay with Tina and Jim for another night as we are having way too much fun here.