Day 3 - Blarney and Killarney

Wednesday was the first real day of our tour.  Breakfast in the hotel was good and we gathered at 9AM to board our bus for Blarney Castle.

Our bus seats about 30 people, there are about 25 in our tour group.

The bus stops about every 1..5 to 2.5 hours to make sure everyone is comfy.

Our first site seeing stop was a distant view of  the Rock of Cashel, near Tipperary.  Remeber the old song, 'Its a long long way to Tipperary'...well it certainly is.

The weather was rather windy and in the 40's, we did not linger.









In Ireland it seems it rains and 10mins later the sun comes out, it changes on and off all day.

When we arrived at Blarney Castle, we were entering a sunny part of the day. It was sunny but windy.

It s a bit of a walk up to the Castle, we passed signs saying 90 min, 60 min wait etc leading up to the Castle, but we were able to walk in without any waiting

We toured the Castle at our leisure, we found several 'Garderob' rooms, which were indoor bathrooms in the castle...poop shoots..

The stairs up to the top of the Castle get more narrow as you climb, it is amazing that people lived here and climbed these every day. The kitchen was not even on the same floor as the great room.....

From the top of the castle, the views were amazing.

June was a good sport and volunteered to pose for our 'Kissing the Blarney' picture. She really did not kiss it but we got the photo shot.











As we made our way down from the top of the castle, there are other rooms to explore, it truly is an amazing structure and gives one an appreciation of how tough life really was during these times (1400s).

After touring the castle we walked the grounds which are beautiful.  We walked by Blarney house, it was not open but is beautiful.

The grounds of Blarney Castle are beautiful.








It was windy and cool during our walk, we stopped in the gift shop where Ed and I got Paddy hats, Bob brought his with him, I am sorry, it is not Irish!!

When we got back to the Hotel we had to get a "Peaky Blinder" pose photo with our guide, Calvin. Calvin said it is a Netflix series we need to check out.










We arrived at our hotel around 5:30PM, and then walked downtown Killarney with our guide and a few others from our tour. We had a good dinner at Danny Mann, and then went from there to find another pub.

We stopped at O'Connors, which is a pub that has been in the family for over 200 years. The place was jammed and we struck up a conversation with a local Irishman, they are all very friendly.

By 9PM nearly all the pubs have some form of live music, it is amazing they can get their equipment into such small spaces. This two man band was called Rythmic Convictions, when they introduced themselves the accordion player said he had rythm and his partner was a convict.

Out next stop was D.  Rielly's Pub, from the street it looked like it was very tiny, when we got inside it was a maze of pubs, at least 4 bars all connected, it was also hopping.










We eventually found our way back to the Hotel and had a Irish Whiskey for a night cap...it was already Thursday.

Thursday, we will drive the Ring of Kerry.