Day 3 Blarneyy Castle & Mills

Day 3, To Blarney Castle

    After one of the fastest, shortest masses any of us had ever attended.....( I blew it and forgot that we wanted to go to St. Mary's cathedral, and asked about the mass times of The Church of the Resurrection) with nary a note sung,

       Following the GPS to Blarney Castle we got distracted by a sign for a Toy Soldier Factory off of N22. Having reprogrammed the GPS to UK time, kilometers and the new voice of Devon, we had to listen to him become increasingly annoyed as he said "Recalculating". We found the toy soldier factory and wandered about using their wifi to update Facebook and send an e-mail.
       When we left, Devon got his revenge by taking us down the worst roads I have ever seen in the EU (at least until Turkey joins) It was truly like someone's driveway with grass growing in the middle of the road. Very glad we did not meet someone coming in the opposite direction. This was like 7.5 K on one road and 5.7 K  on another.

Video at bottom

     When we finally got back to N22 Devon wanted us to go left to got to Macroom to take a back road to Blarney. We again over rode him & took N22 to Cork and then a back road to Blarney, mush faster and many fewer turns (and screams).

 

    We got to Blarney Castle in a good rain, mom waiting in the car (been there, done that) Chris and I paid up and hiked through the rain up to the castle.

I was able to get into the dungeons and put a raincoat on the camera. We hiked up the castle (seen many in Europe before) and kissed the Blarney stone. This seemed a little redundant for the both of us, but we will see what develops. 

    Got lots of pictures in the rain and wandered every room. When we got out we decided to walk to Blarney Manor. Now my notes showed Muckross house closed after Sept 1, but it was Blarney Manor that was closed, so we got a  little extra wet for nothing.

    After we collected Mom and the car we drove 500 meters to the Blarney Mills complex. Fortunately there were a few choices of pubs and restaurants. We had Salmon salad, Ham sandwich  panini and pints.  We then wandered the 3 floors of Blarney Mills with Mom making 2 purchases & Chris and I using great restraint.
    We left, allowing Devon to take us back to Killarney via the circuitous back road through Macroom.

We stopped there for a brief photo op & got back to Larkfield in time for  short nap before supper.
    We got what we thought was an earlier start for supper only to be distracted be Castle Ross on the back way into town. 

Well worth the detour for the photo opportunities. Back on task we got into own and followed "someone's" directions all over town. We drove every street in the downtown area, many twice.
    Ended in the same parking lot as the past 2 nights and just walked a different direction looking for dinner. Found Scot's Restaurant & Pub where we had some nice dinner and a pint or 2.

Back to Larkfield for some reading, blogging, iPhoto and iMovie work before bed.