Saturday, June 1 - Blarney (some pictures)

First thing in the morning we headed to Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney stone.  The castle itself is mostly a ruin but sits surrounded by beautiful gardens.  The Blarney stone is set into the underside of the wall around the top of the castle.  Kissing it is supposed to give you the gift of eloquence.  The trick comes in managing to kiss it.  Jenny and I headed strait to the castle to try to beat the crowds that were starting to show up there since when it is crowded you can spend an hour or more waiting for your turn.  Anyway, to kiss the stone you need to lay on your back and slide backward, tilting your head back then grab two hand rails and scoot further back so you hang out over the edge of the castle and kiss the stone.  There was a man ahead of me who also wore glasses and his glasses fell off and dropped to the ground (about 4 stories down), they survived the fall but it was a great indication to me to take off the glasses first.  Jenny got a picture of me and I got one of her to prove we actually did it.

Jenny climbing to the top of the castle

Banquet Hall

In the banquet hall (picture to the right) the floor would have been just above the middle row of windows with the bottom 2 rows of windows in the family room (pictured below)

Family room

Castle Grounds

View from the top

Passageway

Line to Kiss the Blarney Stone

Did it!

And so did Jenny!

After that little adventure, and some time to look around what there was of the castle, we walked around the grounds.

This is the view looking up at the Blarney stone.  It is at the bottom of that wall that sticks out from the tower, right above that top window.  You can see the sky through the opening that you have to hang out over to kiss the stone!

They had a variety of gardens around the castle.  The pictures above are from the fern garden. and the ones below from some of the flower gardens.

Add caption

One of the gardens was a ‘poison’ garden with various poisonous plants.  The write up for the garden said they had examples of mandrake and wolfs bane – both mentioned in Harry Potter so a must-see item.

Jenny next to the mandrake with her ears covered just in case someone pulls it from the ground. 





The wolfs bane was not there, but we did find a marijuana plant in the center of what looked like a jungle gym.

Evidently they were afraid of tourists trying to get a sample. 

Next stop was the rock of Cashel.  This was a common meeting place for the various kings of Ireland and it was here that St. Patrick chose to begin his preaching of the gospels and the conversion of the pagan kings.  There is, of course, a church to St. Patrick (you can’t seem to pass through a town in Ireland without finding at least one St. Patrick’s church) at the spot.  There is a rock to mark the spot where he supposedly preached and Jenny and I found and collected shamrocks from the base of the rock.  He purportedly used the shamrock as a way to symbolize the concept of the Holy Trinity.

We checked into the Royal Marine hotel on the bay of Dublin, overlooking the Irish Sea.  I have to admit that the places we have been staying are definitely a cut above what I would have booked on my own. 

We went on another side trip this evening, this time to a type of variety show.  It was a mixture of singing, Irish dancing (think Riverdance and Lord of the Dance), and comedy along with dinner.  We had a great tine, and did not get back to the room until after 11 PM – no blogging that night.