On the walk to the castle, we crossed over a bridge with coins glistening in the water. Shadows: Inge and me. After the photo we threw coins in with a wish.
This site says:
"The Earl of Leicester was commanded by Queen Elizabeth I to take possession of the castle. Whenever he endeavoured to negotiate the matter McCarthy always suggested a banquet or some other form of delay, so that when the queen asked for progress reports a long missive was sent, at the end of which the castle remained untaken. The queen was said to be so irritated that she remarked that the earl's reports were all 'Blarney'."
The castle is almost 90' high.
There are winding narrow stairs, secret passages, large rooms, tiny rooms, tunnels and beautiful windows.
Francis Sylvester Mahony wrote that whoever kisses the Blarney stone becomes eloquent, to woo a woman or become a Member of Parliament.
I wasn't going to kiss it, but when our students got excited to do it, I couldn't pass up the chance to become eloquent, and well, just to laugh at the experience.
Inge didn't kiss it, but she took my picture with this man whose job it is to hold women (and men) all day and say silly things like "Let's see how you kiss in the daytime." From the look of his pile of euro coins, I'd say his lines are working. But once I got down in there, backwards, he kept telling me to go farther and farther, until my lips were touching the bottom of the stone edge. Scaaaaaary! (Even though there are now bars that keep you from falling.)
After kissing the Blarney stone, we went to dinner in town, where on each table a vase with one yellow rose sat. Both Inge's and my mom love/d yellow roses, so that was a nice memory. (Inge's mom is still alive.)
When we took our second bus in Cork, some of our students were boarding too. Lena and Becky found some three leaf clovers.
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