DAY-28: Blarney Castle & "The Stone"
Day – 28: Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Starting Location: Kinsale, Ireland
Ending Location: Kinsale, Ireland
For today and tomorrow we'll have an alternate driver due to work time regulations. Our new driver was Kevin, a retired telecom manager supplementing his pension with occasional tour guide/driver work.
Today was about the Blarney Stone and all that goes with it, e.g. gift of gab, good luck, shopping, money grabs, etc.
By late morning we arrived at Blarney Castle, the logical place for the Blarney Stone. After purchasing our admittance tickets we toured the castle grounds passing by minstrels and just a few tourists, all with one objective, kissing the Blarney Stone.
In the park and en-route to the castle we passed an Irish bagpiper earning his daily keep.
Though we wouldn't normally think of Ireland as a bitterly cold country seems that they need to keep their trees warm thus the knitted tree socks that we came upon.
In the end Pat, Jack, Greg and I climbed to the top of Blarney Castle with a single objective, to kiss the magical stone embedded in the castle wall; the same stone kissed by thousands of people with any number of communicable diseases and afflictions.
Of the four stalwart climbers three of us kissed the stone. The "kissing" process was almost mechanical as there were two attendants to move people into and out of position in as little time as possible. Seems like they can run people though the "kissing" at a rate of about 3/minute. Meanwhile the cameras are accurately saving the historic events for posterity and for a mere $$$$, you too can have the cardboard framed picture of oneself kissing the stone or at least what they told us was the stone.
In addition to having a beautiful piece of property,
the Duke of Blarney had great foresight as he dedicated a portion of his property to the retail business, basically the largest woolen outlet in the world. Need I say that a few from our group partook of the shopping opportunity while others opted for a warm beverage.
We followed the Blarney visit with a ride into Cobh, the port town for Cork. Our event for Cobn in addition to the usual sightseeing was to experience "The Queenstown Story" at the Cobh Heritage Centre and learn of the immigration of so many Irish women and men to Australia and the Americas.
The actual tour involved assigning names to each of us such that we might relate better to the trials and tribulations of the folks setting forth from Ireland to the new world. For me, I was a young man named Jeremiah (not associated with bullfrogs). Unfortunately Jeremiah did not survive the sinking of the Titanic. The tie to Cohn was that this was the last port of call for the Titanic before it began its crossing of the Atlantic bound for New York.
In addition to the Titanic, Cohn was the closest port to the site of the sinking of the Lusitania with the few survivors being brought into the city.
From Cohn we drove through Cork City viewing the English market place, many churches, and the university.
We returned to the hotel late in the afternoon and after a few minutes to "freshen up" we were driven into town by Kevin as his last duty of the day.
We had reservations for dinner but first headed to the Jim Edwards Pub for drinks. This was an establishment recommended by the driver and actually recognized by Chris as a place visited on a past trip to Ireland.
After drinks I took a short walk through town just to see some of the colorful homes and shops and also pass by the marina.
We headed to Fishy Fishy a local restaurant well recognized by the travel industry as a tourist must-see place. We had a good dinner with a variety of fish including Brill, Sole, Haddock and cold water oysters for Diane.
With dinner over we remained in town for drinks, Jamesons, Smithwick's, Irish Coffee, etc. Our establishment for the evening was Kitty O Se's. The drinks were good and the music enjoyable, well at least for most of us. Notable for the evening at Kitty's was the "the shark" waitress, so named because for the hour we were there, she never stopped moving. (Note: Sharks will drown if they don't move continuously.)
With drinks consumed and the evening growing late we again hailed taxis and returned to the hotel tonight being driven by none other than Stephen O'Connell, surely a relative of the Massachusetts O'Connell clan.
For today and tomorrow we'll have an alternate driver due to work time regulations. Our new driver was Kevin, a retired telecom manager supplementing his pension with occasional tour guide/driver work.
 |
| Random Flowers |
By late morning we arrived at Blarney Castle, the logical place for the Blarney Stone. After purchasing our admittance tickets we toured the castle grounds passing by minstrels and just a few tourists, all with one objective, kissing the Blarney Stone.
Though we wouldn't normally think of Ireland as a bitterly cold country seems that they need to keep their trees warm thus the knitted tree socks that we came upon.
 |
| The Blarney Stone; which one you might ask! |
We followed the Blarney visit with a ride into Cobh, the port town for Cork. Our event for Cobn in addition to the usual sightseeing was to experience "The Queenstown Story" at the Cobh Heritage Centre and learn of the immigration of so many Irish women and men to Australia and the Americas.
In addition to the Titanic, Cohn was the closest port to the site of the sinking of the Lusitania with the few survivors being brought into the city.
From Cohn we drove through Cork City viewing the English market place, many churches, and the university.
We returned to the hotel late in the afternoon and after a few minutes to "freshen up" we were driven into town by Kevin as his last duty of the day.
We had reservations for dinner but first headed to the Jim Edwards Pub for drinks. This was an establishment recommended by the driver and actually recognized by Chris as a place visited on a past trip to Ireland.
After drinks I took a short walk through town just to see some of the colorful homes and shops and also pass by the marina.
With dinner over we remained in town for drinks, Jamesons, Smithwick's, Irish Coffee, etc. Our establishment for the evening was Kitty O Se's. The drinks were good and the music enjoyable, well at least for most of us. Notable for the evening at Kitty's was the "the shark" waitress, so named because for the hour we were there, she never stopped moving. (Note: Sharks will drown if they don't move continuously.)
With drinks consumed and the evening growing late we again hailed taxis and returned to the hotel tonight being driven by none other than Stephen O'Connell, surely a relative of the Massachusetts O'Connell clan.
No comments:
Post a Comment