Waterford Crystal And Blarney Castle

As usual we got our bags packed and ready to go, after breakfast we made our way to the Waterford Crystal Factory. It started to rain in the morning. We stopped at the Crystal Factory, unfortunately we couldn't tour the factory as it had closed down in February. A victim of the global economic crisis. The name Waterford Crystal has been sold and now it will be mass produced in another country.

We were able to walk through the showroom. All the pieces were very beautiful. Watched a short movie on how the crystal was made. It was all very interesting. We had only spent about an hour and a half in the showroom.

Back on the bus we went. Before stopping at Blarney Castle we were shown one of Ireland's hidden treasures. It was a small town name Yougals (Yawl). We were able to get out of the bus and snap a few photos. Most of us hit the little visitor center. Jen and I bought umbrellas, which helped keep the rain off our heads. Yougals is where the movie "Moby Dick" was filmed. Too bad we didn't have more time to explore, it had alot of interesting things to see.

Arrived at Blarney Castle and this time the rain is coming down steady and hard. We climbed all the way to the top to kiss the blarney stone anyway. We didn't travel thousands of miles to let a little rain keep us from kissing the blarney stone. We had two hours at Blarney and it took us an hour just to make it to the top. Climbed about 200 stairs all spiral and very small. We were able to duck into the small rooms off the stairs. There were signs up that informed us what the rooms were used for.

We finally made it to the top. It was pouring rain and windy. Had to be careful walking as those stones get pretty slick. We all kissed the blarney stone. You have to lay down on your back, grab the rails behind you and lean over as far as you can and kiss the stone. Jen and I went first. There is a guy there helping you, he will hold onto your hips to help you. Mom made it down on the ground ok, but getting up she was a bit slow. Not the easiest thing to do when you don't have much room. There was a professional photographer that would take your photo, but we didn't purchase those. Some people in our group did and they weren't too happy with them. I think the ones we took are just as good.

After kissing the stone, we then made our way back down. More spiral stairs. After all this we were pretty wet and cold and all we wanted to do was get inside and warm. We decided to eat lunch. First we were going to eat in a bar, but we had a hard time finding it, so we ended up eating in the cafeteria restaurant. We all had hot tea and soup. It was all very tasty.

We did find he bar where we wanted to originally eat, but it was outside seating so it was just as well we didn't find it. Boarded the bus and made our way to our hotel in Kenmare.

It was raining too hard to get out and explore. We didn't want to get wet again anyway, so we just stayed at the hotel. Ate dinner in the bar, just something light and had our nightcap.

There was a young family with a little girl about 2 years old there. The little girl was saying hello to everyone at the tables. When she came to our table she gave Jen a huge hug. Her mom said that she liked Jennifer's long hair. She was a cute little girl and not shy at all. She had all these people to visit.