Cork

A slightly later start today – we had a more leisurely get up and when we opened the curtains we were just coming in to Cobh.

We were greeted with views of multi-coloured houses on the hillsides and the impressive St. Colman’s cathedral.  There is also a mural commemorating the Titanic as Cobh was the last stop before its ill-fated voyage across the Atlantic.

After breakfast in the Horizon Court, we set off on our excursion to Blarney Castle, about an hour by road from the port.

On the way to Blarney we passed through Cork on the coach and by now the sun was starting to come out – a refreshing change following our near-drowning yesterday.  We had already decided that we probably wouldn’t have enough time to queue up to kiss the Blarney Stone, but the castle has some beautiful grounds and gardens.

Once the coach had parked up at the Blarney Woollen Mill, we had a short walk to the visitor entrance for the castle.  We had a lovely couple of hours wandering around the castle gardens, taking pictures and seeing the wishing steps and the fairy garden amongst other things.  We also spent a bit of time in the stable courtyard (free wi-fi!) and had a look round the gift shop.

When we were finished in the castle, we headed back to the woollen mills for a bit more browsing in the largest gift shop in Ireland.  There was also just enough time to get an ice cream before it was time to meet up with the bus again for our journey back to Cobh.

After our tour we had a quick pit stop back on the ship for a burger and chips lunch.  We then set off out to have a quick walk around Cobh.  It was busy around the harbour as they were having the regatta there today and you could see many of the little boats out on the sea.