Kissing the blarney stone was one of my agenda items for Ireland. For some reason, Vicky said it was a waste of time for me as I didn't need it. Vicky, on the other hand, had decided that she didn't want to kiss the blarney stone. But as we entered the castle and made our way up the spiral staircase to the top, she had a change of heart. By the time we got to the blarney stone, we were both onboard and ready.

I found the whole process to be rather peculiar. The blarney stone is at the top of the castle which is 90 feet high. Plus, the line in front of us moved rather quickly and I eventually found out why. For example, of the nine people right in front of us in line, only one person kissed the stone. The rest darted past like it was the plague.

In the first photo, this is where we came out of the spiral staircase on top of the castle. You can see the blarney stone kissing going on at the other end of the castle. If you look at the right center, you can see a person's legs and feet. That person is kissing the stone.

If you want to know about kissing the blarney stone, don't expect to find it out from me. As we walked along the castle walk in the above photo, the right side had information plaques on the wall. There were four of them, each one had a different story about the blarney stone. I'll only include the first one here.

Wait, was Vicky saying that I'm full of beguiling but misleading talk, even before I kissed the stone?

The stone kissing process was not that easy, at least not for me. I lay down on my back, held the two metal bars, leaned back down as far as I could and the guide said, "No, you have to go down much further." I told him I was already all the way down. But I scooted forward, arched my back, and leaned way back again, and suddenly, there it was. It was clear to see as it was smooth and sort of a blue-green color as opposed to the rest of the stones. A quick kiss and I was done. I might also mention that it was easy to see that I was 90 feet high and could see the grass growing at the bottom of the castle.

From down below and outside the castle, you can look up and see where people are kissing the blarney stone. It looks a bit daunting from down here.

We left Blarney Castle and went right across the street to the Blarney Castle Hotel. We got a room on the third floor with a super narrow staircase and no elevator. It was a challenge, but we got up there, looking out towards Blarney Castle.

We ate dinner in the hotel bar. I waited until after dinner to try and see if there was anything to the blarney stone kissing business...

You can see the bar below, but this was when we arrived. After dinner, every seat was taken, and it was standing room only.

The big screen TV's all had horse racing showing on them. As I watched, I had a revelation and decided to try out the blarney.

I walked up to a group of people at the bar and loudly stated, "Now I'm from California and I've driven almost all the way around Ireland. I realize that you people drive on the wrong side of the road, but I've grown to accept that. But now I'm looking at horse racing and I see that you people are making your horses run around the racetrack in the wrong direction. (clockwise) I'm okay with driving on the wrong side of the road but you shouldn't be making your horses run in the wrong direction around the racetrack."

I made three separate attempts, at different times and in three separate areas of the bar. Each time, they would look up at the horserace in progress, say something like, "Yea, that's how they do it," and go back to their own conversations and beers. I couldn't stir up any kind of reaction. The closest I got was a couple who told me, "Don't look at us, we're from Australia."

So now I'm beginning to wonder just how much stock I should put into the blarney....

Postscript. It's very common for Vicky and myself to get a cold, flu, or some other ailment on our long foreign trips. For that and other reasons, many people told us that whatever we do in Ireland, DON'T kiss the blarney stone. Well, we both did and neither one of us ever got sick on the entire trip!!

...and that's no blarney!