Blarney Castle, en route to Cork.

Late start but all "clean and pressed". Had a lovely chat to Bryan about farming etc. then did a couple of wrong turn loops before arriving in Tipperary for an egg & bacon brunch. Tipperary is a lower class town - a bit like you'd expect the Irish battlers would live.
From there we went to Blarney Castle which was amazing and had beautiful gardens over many acres. Google Blarney Castle gardens to see the full number of gardens.
There is a legend that says if you kiss the Blarney Stone, you'll get the gift of eloquence. Anyone with the 'gift of the gab' is often told they must have kissed the Blarney Stone. The queue to kiss the Blarney Stone was too long and it was very high up - it's right at the top of the castle. Lots of Americans were happy to wait.
After an ice-cream we headed into Cork and by good luck and the map on the iPad we drove straight to our digs - the Montenotte Hotel.
When we were planning this holiday, we chanced upon the fact that Riverdance were starting a new world tour. Their schedule had three free days at the start. They agreed to play Cork for those three days, with opening night the 11th June. Due to demand for tickets, a matinee show was added on the Saturday. This would be the first time they had played Cork. The day the tickets went on sale, I sat at the computer waiting for the box office to open. I managed to get two tickets in the middle of the second row for opening night. This locked us into being in Cork now.
Just about to get ready for Riverdance when John checked the tickets - oops - it's tomorrow night! - just as well we're here for two nights.
Cork's river is the Lee. It forks and then comes back together forming an island. Cork City is built on this island.
We walked down to there and into the restaurant district on Castle Street. We dined in a nice chinese restaurant and were 'home' reasonably early.Read more