August 18, 2013. Cork, Ireland

August 18, 2013. Cork, Ireland

We docked this morning at 8am. We booked a tour with Paddywagon Tours to go to Blarney Castle. The cost was about half of the ship's tour. The ship is docked in Cobh (Cove) the port for Cork. Cobh was the final stop for the Titanic on its' first and final voyage. We left Cobh and drove directly to Blarney Castle. Our driver/tour guide was smart to get us there early because the line to kiss the Blarney Stone can be a two to three hour wait. We reached the Castle in about an hour. Between the short wait and the
100 steps up a circular stairway It only took Evelyn and I 25 minutes to climb the top, kiss the stone and return to the entrance . It was pretty tight and the steps were very narrow, but we both made it. You have to lay on your back while an attendant guides you towards the stone. You don't have much time, before they snatch you back. It reminded me of the movie "The Christmas Story" where Ralph wanted to ask Santa for an air rifle and he can't get the words out before Santa's helper drags him away. They take your picture but they weren't very good. They use a different set of stairs going down and we could stop and look at the various castle rooms.

We did a quick walk around the grounds and the found Lanny and Elaine. We still had some time before we had to return to the bus so we found "The Mill" a shopping opportunity..

A word about the weather - we had some rain in Southampton, but Guernsey and Cork have been nice. Temperature in the high 60s, with periods of sun shine. Very pleasant for sightseeing.

After the castle we had a driving tour of Cork. The second largest city in Ireland after Dublin. Until 1921 Ireland was a part of Great Britain, then it gained its independence except for the six counties that make up Northern Ireland of which Belfast is the capitol. If the island of Ireland was one county the Belfast would be the second largest city. After our drive though Cork we stopped in Kinsale a medieval port town. We had about two hours to eat lunch and walk around the town. We found an "organic" restaurant, no beer only wine. The fish chowder was pretty good, but tomorrow in Dublin it will be fish and chips.

We drove back to Cobh with the intend to spend an hour walking around the town before returning to the ship, but this weekend is a large regatta and festival, the streets, which are very narrow, were packed with cars and our bus couldn't get close to the ship. We were able to get out and walk down hill to the ship, while going thru the town.

We all enjoyed the tour and by kissing the Blarney Stone we have seven years of the gift of gab.

We are relaxing in the cabin waiting for dinner.

Tomorrow we are in Dublin and I have book a hop-on hop-off bus. Princess has a shuttle from the port to the city center for $16 R/T. It runs from 9am to 6pm which will give us enough time for seeing the city. Stopping in 10 ports in 12-days is no relaxing, but on the second part of our cruise we will have a number of sea days.


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Hal