Sunday, July 6th

For our first day in Ireland, we had bought tickets for a day bus tour to Cork and the Castle Blarney.  The only problem with this tour as far as I could see was that we were supposed to be at the arranged meeting place at... gulp... 6:50 am!  One supposes that if you're physically inclined to do so, you could snooze on the bus, and I did a little bit, but not much.  

Now Bill (Sporty Spice) is the one who found this tour company and I assume he just Googled, but it was a home run!  Our driver/tour guide was Barry and he was great!  Funny, accented, but not too thick as to be unintelligible.  We learned that cyclists are the "spawn of Satan" from him as well as the details regarding the sport of hurling and "Irish football" - not to be confused with American football or soccer!

We drove about two hours, with a potty break in there somewhere, and our first stop was the Rock of Cashel - this was a surprise to me as I only thought we were doing Cork and Blarney!  But it was very pretty, the ruins of the seat of the ancient kings of Munster which was later given to the Church.  After a short video we were able to ramble around.  The "youngest" building was built in the 1400's.  There was a very pretty cemetery, St. Patrick's Cross, and a beautiful rainbow - so beautiful, it almost seemed fake! 

After about another hour, we arrived at the Castle Blarney.  Bill, obviously not feeling that he had enough blarney in him, wanted to actually kiss the Blarney Stone.  Holly and I chose instead to wander around the grounds and see things like the witch's kitchen, the druids' cave, and a fairy ring.  Then as the time came for us to wander back to the bus, we hit a shop or two, including a chocolate shop that gave us samples.  

We then drove to and were let loose upon the town of Cork.  By this time we were ravenous and we looked for someplace to eat - found a nice cafe - then ambled through shops until it was time to rejoin our bus.  My knee, at this point, was beginning to hate the bus, but it managed to survive.  We arrived back in Dublin a little after 7pm and it was too early to return to our TV-less hovels, so we checked out the pub next door to our hovel and had some wings.  I am on a campaign to find iced tea - I ask for it everywhere.  So far my only non-alcoholic, non-carbonated choices have been water and cranberry juice.  Of course, part of the problem in my iced tea quest is that there's no ice in this blessed island!

After a relaxing couple of hours in the pub, we returned to our room and passed out.  We were pooped. 

Finally, I apologize for there being no pics associated with this blog.  I'm doing all of this via my iPad and it's a lot more effort than I'm willing to devote to get the pics in this.  Sorry.  :)