Smooching the stone!

Hello from Killarney!  Carrie actually had a sleep in this morning and woke at 6am - woo hoo!!

Today we drove from Cork to Cobh (pronounced Cove).  Cobh is known for being the last port of call for the Titanic ship before that fateful night in April 1912.  It's a beautiful and colourful port town definitely worth a visit. 

Carrie then took the driving by the horns so to speak and took both of our lives in her hands behind the wheel of 'Riona the Red Corolla' and drove us to the next destination of the day.  

We then drove to Kinsale, a historic fishing port on the southern Coast of Ireland.  Here you will find more brightly coloured buildings, which is also famously a foodie haven, that has festivals yearly.  Kinsale also has two 17th century fortresses nearby overlooking the River Bandon.   

This town was bustling full of tourists, so finding a carpark was proving a little challenging as well as tiny little car spaces that Carrie wasn't sure Riona was going to squeeze into. We ended up doing laps of the town. This is because,  we have noticed in Ireland already when you say you'll just do a 'blockie' it doesn't really mean it like back home.  There are so many winding one way streets and pedestrian only streets (1 we were set to drive down today only turned to pedestrian only yesterday) so you get detoured well out of where you wanted to go to be able to come back to the beginning. Sigh!  We got there in the end. Even driving the narrow streets has us saying 'breathe in' every time we drive down them with another car coming the opposite way.

We finally found a park and meandered the streets and had a little bite to eat in a tiny little cafe just off the Main Street (with every other tourist).

From here we headed to Blarney Castle, we arrived here at 2:30pm and the car park was full so again we had to search for a car park (our most fun game so far).  After a few 'blockies' we finally found a park actually close by to the entrance and didn't have to pay. Bonus!

We paid EUR23 each to enter into the Blarney Castle & Gardens.  The castle was originally built in 1446 but prior to this it was a wooden structure that was built in the 10th century.  The castle is set on 60 acres of parkland and has various gardens including a poison garden which houses dangerous plants.  The castle is famously known for the Blarney Stone.  The Blarney Stone is a block of carboniferous limestone set into the battlements of Blarney Castle.  Kissing the stone is said to give the kisser "the gift of the gab."

When we reached the castle, we had to line up to enter to get to the top and 'kiss' the stone.  The line was at least a 60 minute wait.  Carrie kindly kept Claire company in said line for 45mins before bailing when the stairwell became steep, narrow and winding.  The handrail almost vertical.  Carrie retreated before a sure panic attack would've ensued had she continued on.  As there were noisey Americans in front, and noisey British people behind and no fresh air and people packed in like sardines.  So she made her way back to the bottom and waited for Claire to 'Smooch the stone.'

Claire reached the top and broke her back bending backwards to kiss the stone.  She lived to tell the tale and didn't fall through the gap or down the stairs on the way out.  Thankfully there was a proper handrail on the way down.  

As we were leaving Carrie got to 'smooch the Blarney......castle'!  Since she did pay she might as well get a taste of the some stone and it was clearly the safer option as Carrie won't end up with herpes or covid like Claire.

The gardens on the property were beautiful we could have spent so much longer, but we needed to get onto our next destination.  As we were heading to the exit, a cute blonde rolled up on the back of a wagon.  Bruce the Golden Retriever zoomed by in his box on the back of a garden buggy.  Very cute.

We then headed to Killarney which is in County Kerry.  Again gorgeous scenery for the drive here.  Very green and lush.  We arrived at our hotel and Claire did some washing (boring! but necessary).  We then headed to dinner at The Danny Mann pub in the city centre.  We had a great meal and a lively atmosphere with local live music artists.  We had a great time listening, bopping and laughing to the singers.  We stayed longer than intended as we were enjoying experience.  A local 9 year old boy, Johnny, got up and sang a song and he blew us away with his talent and didn't seem phased at all with the attention.

From dinner we took a walk along the streets of city centre. They were buzzing with activity including live music streaming from most drinking establishments, many tourists pounding the pavement and plenty of kids scoring ice-cream from their tipsy parents.

Time for bed.  Speak to you again tomorrow same bat time same bat channel.