BRITISH ISLES CRUISE: Day 3--Cobh, Ireland

Sunday, August 18

Our first excursion with our Cruise Critic friends is aboard the ecoach bus departing from our port town, Cobh (pronounced Cove) and headed to Blarney Castle.  

Cobh town houses

On the road to Blarney Castle

Countryside is so green!  But hard to take photos from a bus window.

We were on the first bus to arrive at the castle and we all headed directly up the path to the castle so we could “kiss the Blarney Stone”!  

Tradition has it that whoever kisses the Blarney Stone will receive the gift of a nimble tongue, blessed with eloquent speech and persuasive ability!  Okay…..so off we went. 

We climbed the steep winding steps to the top of the castle and found we were the first ones up there.

There was a gentleman spraying the stone with disinfectant (thank you, very much) and another was taking the photos which you could purchase before leaving the castle.  It took all of 3 seconds to get in position, lay a kiss on the stone, and be yanked up so the next one could take a turn.  I can’t imagine how many people kiss this stone in a day…..by the time we left the castle area 1.5 hours later, the line for the Blarney Stone was extremely long. 

Since we got the kissing the stone over with in just a few minutes time, we had time to wander around the beautiful gardens of the castle.  Just a couple of points of interest included the Poison Garden, the Wishing Steps, and the Druid Stones.

Walk backwards down the steps, with eyes closed, and make a wish.
If you don't trip and kill yourself, I guess the wish comes true within a year.

Walk through the circle of stones to be protected from evil.

Of course a visit to a tourist area is not complete without the opportunity to do some shopping.  We browsed through the Blarney Woolen Mills and watched some young girls entertain us with an Irish jig.

Next stop on our bus tour was to Charles Fort, where we didn’t enter the fort but had the opportunity to snap some photos.  It was just off this coastline where the sunken wreck of the cruise ship Lusitania lies, which was torpedoed in 1915 by a U-boat during WWI with the loss of 1,500 lives

Then it was on to the picturesque town of Kinsale.  It is the site of the famous Battle of Kinsale in 1602 which was one of the turning points of Irish history.  A Spanish force landed here to support Irish rebels against the English army.  After their defeat, the Spaniards were allowed to withdraw, but the Irish were punished and this is when the English crown took domination of most of the island of Ireland.   Kinsale is a historic fishing port featuring a pretty harbor, along with many well-preserved, 18th-century houses.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch of chicken & chips (kind of tired of fish& chips) along the waterfront and then walked through the town to see a few of the historic sites. 

Then it was time to rest our tired legs so we found a pub.  

It was filled with locals watching the hurling match on tv.  It was the championship game between Limerick and another town.  Hurling was on a field 400m in length and the players struck a ball with what looked like a short hockey stick with a fatter end.  They wore helmets and face guards as one could really get hurt in this game.  One of the locals sat near us and explained what was going on, which was helpful when we could understand his Irish brogue.

Back on the bus we headed back to Cobh with a stop at St. Colman’s Cathedral.  It was built in 1868 and has a famous rose window.  Inside the church the stained glass was amazing.  My camera does not do it justice.

Leaving the cathedral we headed back to the ship on the bus.  The traffic was terrible and our bus had to navigate down a narrow street with cars parked on one side and traffic coming toward us on the other side.  The cars ended up having to back down the hill so the bus could get down.

 

View from the bus trying to get down this narrow, busy street

Back at the port there was a visitor center with a Titanic Exhibition.  Now I will be mentioning the Titanic frequently during this cruise as we will be at several Titanic spots.  So far, while in London on the HOHO bus, we passed the building where tickets for the Titanic voyage were sold.  Then in Southampton, the ship started its voyage on April 10, 1912.  Cobh (formerly known as Queenstown) was the last stop the ship made before starting across the Atlantic on April 11, 1912.

Hand stitched wall hanging honoring the 123 people from Cobh
who boarded the Titanic, most of which did not survive.

This section of the wall hanging showed  that a mother and her
7 children were among the Cobh victims.

 That’s it for now, there will be more Titanic information at later ports.

Cobh was the single most important port of emigration from Ireland and a local gal is honored in statue form as being the first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island.

Next port will be Dublin.