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Thursday 17th March
St Patricks Day
8C - 0C
So....we got up before 8 this morning as we wanted to get away fairly early but all didn't go to plan. We had a lovely breakfast at the B&B, packed our bags then went to pay but they didn't have credit card facilities, so we went to a grocery store where they have a cash out machine but it didn't recognise our cards so we went to the servo where they had the same type of machine (bloody banks!). The lady said if we make a 10 Euro purchase we can get cash out. Well that's fine but it's like well what are we gonna buy and then when you have to spend a certain amount you never can. Anyway...we ended up buying 3 large bottles of water, a 4 litre bottle of water(you can never have enough water), 2 small bottles of orange juice, 2 apples, 2 bread rolls and 2 pastries. Not too bad really for 10 euro. Plus, we didn't have to buy lunch as we had cheese spread and cheese from yesterday's breaky to put on the rolls. So finally we were on our way at around 10am. We stopped at Cloghan at around 12.30 for about 40 minutes to eat lunch...the wind was pretty cold but the little park was really pretty and it had a lovely water feature in it. On our way again through, at times, narrow roads with hedges on either side, plenty of rolling green fields filled with lazy black and white cows chewing their cuds. Lots of old monestary's and church ruins and even old houses or rather mansions in ruins. I guess the families can't afford the upkeep or the heritage has been lost through time ect. Rather sad really. I would love to buy one and do it up....yeah, l could see myself as lady of the manor...hahaha...
We arrived in Blarney at around 3pm. There was quite a trafic jam as there was the St Pat's festivities going on and it probably took about 3/4 of an hour to get to Blarney Castle. The castle was magnificent....l really love castles. It was in pretty good nic too. There were a hundred winding narrow stone stairs we had to climb to reach the Blarney Stone and the views were fantastic. To kiss the Blarney Stone you have to lie on your back and sort of wriggle towards the stone then tilt your head right back to reach it, very awkward looking, and seeing as Mum and l both have bad backs we thought it best that we don't do it, so l touched the stone and kissed my fingers. It was really, really good though and we enjoyed it so much. We made our way down the winding stone stairs and went in and out of small rooms. It's quite fascinating to see how they lived, well the rich people anyway. In the grounds of the castle is a Poison Garden which contains only poisonous plants. In the old days they would have had a similar garden. There is part of the Curtain Wall around the tower house still standing. This wall was part of the Castle's defences. The stables were gorgeous but to me, they looked newer than the Castle(especially with the cars parked in them). The grounds were so lush and there were several little brooks running through it. It all seemed so tranquil. When we finished looking around we went to the St Patrick's fair but it had just about finished. It looked like they had a parade, Irish dancing, Scottish bagpipes and the usual fair stuff....stalls of homemade stuff, food, jumping castles ect. We were on our way out of Blarney when we came across the Woolen Mills sowestopped and had a look but basically it was a huge commercialised shop where you could buy not only woolen things but crystal, souveniers, cotten products, confectionary, clothes ect. It was a bit disappointing so we high tailed it out of there and drove to Cork which was only about 10 minutes up the road. We've stopped in a hotel called the Commons Inn, cost is 60 pound for bed and breakfast. The room is large and clean. We were going to have dinner in the bar but it closed at 5pm 'cause of St Pat's day so we ordered chinese takeaway. It was pretty good and we were so hungry. Tomorrow we make our way to Waterford, where they make the Waterford Crystal, which should only take us about an hour.
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