Today we visited Blarney Castle and the coastal village of Kinsale. Blarney Castle is contained within the larger Blarney Estate along with Blarney House and many acres of maintained gardens. We climbed to the top of Blarney Castle but did not kiss the Blarney Stone. Many others did but as I’m currently carrying the “bad cold germs” it seemed like the right thing to do was not to deposit my germs on top of several million other layers of germs provided by previous kissers.
The walk around the grounds was very relaxing – as not many people bother to enjoy the grounds. They appear to be bussed in, herded to the top of the Castle to have their kiss captured by a camera and whisked back to the bus with just enough time to buy the aformentioned picture from the gift shop on the way out.
We enjoyed a fresh sandwhich overlooking Blarney’s village green before driving out to Kinsale, a lively coastal village with a busy harbour.
To finish our day we enjoyed a meal with Owen and Heather Sillett at a very nice restaurant in the centre of Cork. Owen works for Honeywell and spent about four years working for Honeywell Australia in Brisbane before relocating back to Ireland at the end of 2014. I’d worked with Owen on a number of projects in Australia and it was great to catch up over a meal. Owen and Heather both work from their home in Cobh with their three young children. Heather is a customer service representative for Apple. I was amazed at the effort she had to endure in order to complete her job application and interview for the position. Apple appears to be fastidious with their employee selection process.
Tomorrow we will be doing a walking tour of the centre of Cork and hoping the weather will be as good as it was today.
You are really moving into the lovely bits of Ireland…where the Graces came from near Bandon and surrounds. They left for Australia from Cork. I could easily image them as share farmers in the area away from the cute but still quite small, fishing villages. Great memories. Thanks for sharing your trip. ?