First we drove to Kildare to visit the Irish National Stud and learnt a bit about race horse breeding. Famous 1993 Melbourne Cup winner Vintage Crop had been here but sadly had died only 10 days earlier. We also wandered through the acclaimed 100 year old Japanese Gardens.

Next we moved on to the medieval city of Kilkenny where we found a cafe for lunch and watched an audio visual display at the Kilkenny Castle.

We had a photo stop and a milkshake next to the imposing 13th century castle of Cahir before proceeding to our accommodation for the evening at the Blarney Golf Resort. We had a very enjoyable meal at the hotel, entertained by a couple of our fellow travellers, Bruce from NZ and Derek from Bloomingdale, Illinois, both of whom are great joke tellers.

All of that distracted us from the beginning of the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony coming from Glasgow but we saw the Queen and some of the athletes arriving.