Blarney Castle

Today I had a date...with the Blarney Stone. From our hotel it was a 30 minute drive on decent roads. We pulled into a delightful small town, again filled with shops and restaurants surrounding a lush grass-filled square park. I lucked out and quickly found an easily accessible parking space. We then headed out into the shops. Unfortunately, in the interest of the the vast number of sheep it would require to provide enough wool to knit me a sweater, I am mostly window shopping in this country of knitwear. At least I can try on hats.

It cost 12 euros to enter the Blarney Castle grounds, but when you see how well maintained everything is, it is clear that the money is being properly allocated. We decided to high tail it to get in the queue to ascend the castle steps up to the famous Blarney Stone. Luckily the weather was great, partly cloudy with a stiff breeze, but at least it was dry. The total time from bottom to top, and back down again was about 1.5 hours. The line snaked into the basement, which used to house cattle, before heading into the formerly human occupied portion of the castle. I soon came to the realization that had I lived during the time this castle was built, villagers would have thrown stones at me and chased me around with pitchforks for being a giant. The first chamber we entered made an airplane bathroom look spacious. Evidently, when the castle building business went south, the same tradesmen took up assembling MG's. Now came the fun part; climbing five flights up a precarious and narrow spiral staircases where the only handrail was a rope mounted vertically down the middle of the spiral. Let's just say the corridors were so narrow that my arms were scraping the sides to the point that my arms looked like I had just chased brer rabbit through the briar patch. Finally, we emerged at the top of the castle. The views were glorious. Now was the time we had been waiting for. Did you know that you have to hang upside down to lock lips with this mythical rock? Although others were fearful of falling through, I was confident that I no chance of slipping past the bars. After doing the deed, we made our way down another tight spiral stairwell and explored the Poison Garden. I am so glad that we stayed in line, and that the sun was shining. It was a great day.

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