Blarney

Tammy and I both decided to try porridge this morning for breakfast. It's probably best described as creamy oatmeal... not bad. After breakfast, we left Cork for Blarney Castle. The castle itself is interesting, but the real reason we were there was to kiss the Blarney Stone. Tammy went first...

... and then it was Jim's turn.

The pictures are oriented correctly. In order to kiss the Blarney Stone, you have to lay down on the castle wall, and bend backwards over the ledge!

After we finished exploring the castle and walking the grounds of Blarney Castle, we drove northwest to Killarney, where we're staying for the next two days. We spent the afternoon driving the Ring of Kerry, a 112-mile loop around the Iveragh Peninsula on the West Coast. It's a beautiful drive, starting out along Kells Bay, looking across to the Dingle Peninsula.

Near Waterville (about halfway around), there are spectacular views out into the North Atlantic.

As you come back across the south side of the peninsula, you rise in elevation until you cross the gap... note the clouds obstructing the mountain tops along the top of the picture.

We really enjoyed the drive... very picturesque like the Blue Ridge Parkway or the Road to Hana in Hawaii.

As a side note, we noticed a lot of O'Sullivan's here.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the O'Sullivan clan was originally located in County Tipperary, but was driven by the Anglo-Normans to the West. They settled mostly in the Kerry Peninsula (O'Sullivan Mor) and the Beara Peninsula to the south (O'Sullivan Beare).

Tomorrow we're off to the National Park.