INCREDIBLE IRELAND

BLARNEY!

I found some 5 Pound flights from London to Dublin, so here we are in Ireland for a week. We are in a rental car, touring the southern part of this Emerald Isle. And really, it is green, green everywhere -- incredibly lovely landscape. We drove south from Dublin through the Wicklow Mountains, visited the Waterford Crystal Factory and then Cobh, a port town from which most Irish emigrants left the country for a new life elsewhere. Cobh was also the last port of call for the ill-fated Titanic, and the rescue center for the equally disastrous Lusitania voyage.





Today we visited Blarney Castle in County Cork. There is quite a bit more to Blarney Castle than the famous stone and we enjoyed a full morning exploring the extensive grounds and local village.

Here's a view from the castle. We joined hordes of other tourists in climbing Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone.

I'd never read the details of HOW you kiss the stone. After climbing up a treacherous spiral stairway in a corner tower of the castle,
you have to lie on your back and tip your head back over open space to reach the unobtrusive, triangular stone set in the upper wall of the castle. Here is Grace making the brave attempt to improve her eloquence. For that is the promise of the magical Blarney stone: kiss it and be forever eloquent. We gave each other before-and-after eloquence tests to see if it really works. In Grace's case, it made a tremendous difference! She went from stuttering fool to eloquent orator, all the result of a neck-kinking kiss.

I particularly enjoyed the area that long ago was a druidic settlement. We wandered through the fairy glade, the Druids circle, the Witches Kitchen, and here is Gloria by the Witches Stone. The whole area felt very mystical and alive.

After our day in Blarney, we headed north to Killarney, where we are ensconced for the night. We plan an early start (to beat the tour buses) on the Ring of Kerry tomorrow, a loop drive around a scenic peninsula here in County Kerry. We hope to be in Limerick for church on Sunday morning. (I wonder if they will worship in rhyme?) We have a couple of days planned in Dublin before we head back to London on the 19th. We are all loving Ireland!

LONDON, BABY!

No Death Eaters appeared to destroy the Millenium Bridge when we were walking across it, as happened in the opening scenes of the new Harry Potter movie, which, incidentally, Grace and I saw here in London last week. We also (all of us) went to the stage production of The Lion King at the Lyceum theatre -- absolutely stunning.

Here's a view from the London Eye -- through a bit of rain. You can see the Houses of Parliament down there on the right bank of the Thames and Big Ben sticking up.

Well, I look downright scary, but aren't my brass rubbings nice? Grace, Gloria and I spent a lovely afternoon in the crypt of St. Martin in the Fields, at the brass rubbing center, while Stephen whiled away his time across the square (Trafalgar, to be precise) in the National Gallery. They have candlelight concerts in the church on many nights (without Neville Mariner, sadly) but we just sit in on the afternoon rehearsals and hear some great music, minus the candles and the cost.

We really enjoyed attending the Hyde Park Ward on Sunday, it being the first time we'd been to English-speaking church in many months. Afterwards, we wandered through nearby Hyde Park and discovered the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, which Grace and Gloria particularly loved. We also listened to several impassioned speakers on their makeshift soapboxes at Speakers Corner.