If You Thought I Was Full of Blarney...I’ve Sealed The Deal: I Kissed The Blarney Stone

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Well, I did it! I walked up the steps at Blarney Castle and I kissed the stone. I now have the gift of gab LOL. It wasn’t an easy feat, well to get my picture kissing the Blarney Stone. I had to climb a narrow tower, I hit the top of my head on a very old stone archway, I stood in line, I asked Carl (in our group) to capture my pic since I would be holding on to save my life. Kerry had told me when we planned this trip, to not expect him to climb to the top and kiss the stone soooo... Carl was going to take Anne’s pic (his wife) and he said he would take mine too... as we waited in line and we got closer I saw Kerry at the top across the way ... but he wasn’t close enough to take a pic, so... he climbed the whole way up, didn’t kiss the stone AND didn’t get close enough to take his wife’s pic either! Seriously. About the time they told me to lie down, Carl was in position for my pic and then well the pic he captured was pretty frightening and there was no kiss but the Blarney castle sophisticated camera captured the act although as you can see from the pic that it is a talented move to bend to kiss the Blarney Stone...



Our next adventure was at The Rock of Cashel also known as Cashel of the Kings and St. Patrick's Rock. It is a historic site with great structures representing medieval architecture and Celtic art. Few of the bones of the early structures remain, although we were still impressed with the early 12 and 13th century buildings that are standing?. There’s a round tower that dates back to 1100... and Cormac’s Chapel, the chapel of King Cormac for Mac Carthaigh was consecrated in 1134. The Cathedral was built in the 1200s and has a massive tower and an extended castle. The Hall of the Vicars Choral is also on this site and it was built in the 15th century. Needless to say, “stunning“ doesn’t even come close to describing THE ROCK.



On our descent to the bus D.J and I went searching for coffee and she was hankering for a Diet Coke before the trip back to Dublin. We found espresso but no Diet Coke AND along with the espresso was beautifully decorated doughnuts, sadly the caloric destruction those guys would have achieved was frightening and discouraging so espresso was the final order.

We hopped on the bus just as it was preparing to power up after a great tour of the Rock of Cashel. When we arrived in Dublin, since it was our last evening as a group we took a group picture and then a few of us headed to the ancient and oldest bar in Ireland (our second trip) ... The Brazen Head ... - a little Irish music with a couple of Van Morrison tunes and some sing alongs that brought the crowd alive finished out our evening..

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