Kathleen
County Kerry, including Blarney, with Aunt Maureen 6/15-21, 2013
After basking in the bliss of having our own private house complete with washer, DRYER, stove, refridgerator, etc. for an entire day (the loads of laundry took 2.5 hours each, and it was a really small washing machine so it literally took all day – don’t worry, we paid for our own electricity) we headed back to cork to pick up my aunt Maureen, who had opted to join us for the Ireland portion of our trip – first taker!! Yay aunt Mo! She is extremely self-sufficient and had flown into Shannon airport, met a friend for the week-end, and took a bus to meet us in Cork at a pre-determined time. She got in early and had the town figured out by the time we arrived. She looked incredibly chipper in her orange rain jacket, and had already found the English Market, which had been recommended to us for lunch. This is an upscale market in Cork, with very nice meat, cheese and veg counters and a lovely restaurant up top. She told us about her rainy week-end over lunch and then we took the liberty of buying a few grocery items to take back to our luxurious kitchen.
On the way out of Cork, we had to stop at Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone. Now, I have to tell you all, my Aunt Mo is currently in the last year of her 7th decade and the Blarney stone is about 5 stories up in the ruined castle using narrow, uneven stone steps. I asked her several times if she wanted to wait whle we went up (she had been in Ireland 40 years prior and already kissed said stone), but she insisted she was fine. All I could think about was how this Sullivan family matriarch would fall down the stairs, break something (at best) and it would be my fault for taking her to this damn castle. I must say, she climbed up AND DOWN every one of those stairs, refused help, and did not falter a bit. Kudos to aunt MO! This set the tone for the trip. She is a can-do lady and she really can do it since she has kept herself in very good shape over the years. I was the only one who actually kissed the stone this time…..you have to lay down, bend over backwards and scoot sort of over a cliff in the castle. There is a nice man there to hold you but he was like 80 years old himself and I am a wee bit afraid of heights. You are supposed to scoot way up and kiss the second 12-inch stone down….I may have only kissed the first stone, but I am ok with that….we shall see if I have inherited the gift of the Blarney….I guess it will be for all of you to determine :). Blarney aside, the castle and grounds were absolutely beautiful and it is definately worth a visit even if the thoughtof bending over backwards 5 stories up to put your lips on something that billions of other lips have been on makes your stomach queasy.
From there, we headed back to county Kerry, to get settled in for the next 5 days. This is the most touristed area of Ireland for a reason, and we were extremely lucky to have a beautiful day to drive the Ring of Kerry. I think the pictures will speak for themselves. There is practically no place in Ireland to go where the scenery is not extraordinarily beautiful, but Kerry is particularly beautiful with its inlets, green mountains, sheep be-speckled hills, various beaches and hundreds to thousands of years-old castles and forts.
Steve expertly battled the left-hand driving, narrow roads and tour busses as you would expect and every day we stopped at a little pub for lunch eating our fill of fish & chips, Irish stews and yummy local salads. In the evenings, we retired to our home away from home in Kenmare and tried to watch the sun go down when the weather was good. We had rain and sun, most days an unpredictable splattering of both, but thoroughly enjoyed the countryside and our place in it.
On June 21st, the solstace, we went to the stone circle in Kenmare (one of the best preserved in Ireland) and waited a little while for something profound to happen. Unfortunately, it was drizzling at the time so the sun was unable to shine in the right place at high noon and direct us to the pot of gold (or something like that), but it was sort of amazing to be in this place and think that this was probably the highpoint of celebration for folks that lived in this area a thousand years ago.
We had lots of little adventures in Kerry, but agian, I think the pictures are the highlight of this area of the trip, so please do browse through to see what we were most fortunate to be able to see.