We sped through the southern part of Ireland today and packed it all in. We are both exhausted and look forward to a more leisurely pace when we arrive on the western coast. Medieval graveyards and churches are everywhere in this part of the country so on our morning drive, we stopped to explore a few at our leisure. It just amazes me that these old things are still here. In the States, they would have been torn down and built over ages ago. Just think of the entire heritage that we, as Americans, have lost from this type of rebuilding!

We arrived in Waterford around midday where we stopped to see take the Waterford Crystal factory tour. It’s an actual walk through the factory…so interesting! You could see people at work blowing, molding, cutting and engraving crystal. I certainly have a better understanding of why Waterford crystal is so expensive... but we still didn’t buy any! Waterford doesn’t sell seconds - all of their stuff on the market is supposedly perfect - a fact I found disappointing!

From Waterford, we cruised over to Blarney Castle where we did the tourist thing and kissed the Blarney stone! Of course, it has to be done... but the castle tour (we’ve now done quite a few "castles" in Europe!) left something to be desired... and it was way overpriced. The one saving grace was the beautiful grounds surrounding the castle.... I wish we had brought along a picnic, as it was a beautiful spring day!

We decided to stop for the night in the town of Conakilty because the guidebook said that some of the best Irish music could be found in the pubs there. However, as hard as we looked… we couldn’t find it! We wandered around town... but even the pub that had a sign in the window saying "Live Irish Music Tonight" was quiet! Oh well, hopefully we will find some traditional music before we leave the country!