Blarney Castle, Rock of Cashel, and Dublin - June 13, 2012

Pic from www.blarneycastle.ie

It was a whirlwind of a day.  We left Killarney and traveled several hours by coach to Blarney Castle.  I had kissed the Blarney stone last year -- so I didn't bother to climb the castle steps and kiss it again.  I wonder what kind of germs are on that rock!!!  Plus I don't like depending on two men I don't know to hold on to my legs as I lay backwards to kiss a rock.  Something a little bizarre about that!  This picture comes from their Web site.

We spent a little time in the Blarney Woollen Mill shop.  The knitted sweaters and scarves were beautiful, but how often do I actually wear a heavy sweater in area during winter?  So I left them behind.

We traveled on to the Rock of Cashel, which according to current public relations materials is one of the most visited "heritage" sites in Ireland.   There's a great audio tour on the Cashel village Website that will let you visit the site without climbing that gigantic hill!

Here in Cashel we stopped at a lovely "carvery" for lunch.  A carvery is similar to a cafeteria line where the meat is carved for you in front of your eyes.  Plate portions seem to be tremendous.  I can see why everyone walks everywhere if they are eating in these restaurants.  Along with any potatotes that come with your set meal, they also often put potatoes and "veg" with it.  We had meals at some places where we actually had three different servings of potatoes with the meal!    At this carvey, I opted out of the potatoes and meat thing and had quiche!

We ended the afternoon in Dublin where we had a couple of hours to look around and SHOP!  How much shopping can a group of women do?

Druid's Glen Golf Course

About seven o'clock we broke our journey at Druid's Glen Resort.  They must have bribed someone to get us in here.  We had to go down teeny little country lanes to get to the resort, but the road then opened into a beautiful world class resort, golf club, and hotel.  Right now their room rates are only about $150 U.S. but the literature in our room indicates that during height of the season our room's actual charge could be closer to $500 U.S.  It was marvelous with down covers, big rooms, wide halls, and excellent dining.

Greens fees at the golf course are about $120 U.S. per person.    The Irish Open was played here in 2000.
The resorts gets its name from a Druid Altar rock located on near the 12th green.  However, in the evening it began to rain buckets and I couldn't get out there to get a picture.