Our day started early.  The group was split between two hotels so I had to meet the bus at 7:15 for a 7:30 breakfast.  At 8, we had our "jaunting car" ride through the nearby national park.  A jaunting car is just a horse drawn carriage that seats about eight people.  The scenery is beautiful and it's not raining.  We stop to see a castle and I take some photos (including one that I think is my best thus far).  We resume the ride, return to the hotel and depart after 9 for the Ring of Kerry.

The Ring of Kerry is another highly rated attraction and the scenery is great.  I would have preferred more stops on the road, but the stops we do make are spectacular.

We head to Blarney for a few hours of exploration of the town and castle.  The tacky and touristy Blarney Stone is at the castle.  The legend is if you kiss it, you have the gift of eloquence.  I'm more interested in the views from the top of the castle and have no interest in kissing a saliva and lipstick covered rock that hundreds kissed during the day.  The view at the top is okay and I skip kissing the stone (do I really need more eloquence anyway?).  We explore the gardens and return to the bus at 3pm.

A short ride gets us to the Jameson Whiskey Distillery.  The introductory movie is silly, but the tour was interesting (much better than the Scotch tour we had in Scotland).  I learn how Irish whiskey differs from Scotland's (Scotch).  In Ireland, the barley is dried without smoke and the whiskey is distilled three times.  Scotch is distilled twice and U.S. whiskey is distilled only once.  I need to check wikipedia for some further clarifications.  Our guide is a strangely peppy girl from North Carolina.  I wonder what she's drinking to be so peppy.   We taste one whiskey and, like the Scotch I tried last week, after a few sips I'm done.  Way too strong for me.  I don't know how people drink this stuff.

We have a slow dinner in our hotel and I crash from my lack of sleep the night before.  There's not much going on in Cork and it's begun to rain anyway.  Most of us take a much needed night off.  

View the photos of the Ring of Kerry and Cork.