Our first port on this trip took us to Cork, Ireland and the harbour city of Cobh, (pronounced 'Cove'). County Cork is the largest County in Ireland and Cork Harbour is the second largest natural harbour in the world, after Sydney Harbour.
My first private tour ever organised and our group of 13, including us, were on time and off the ship by 8am. Our tour guide/driver was Tony Bennett (not the singer) and in his small mini van, whisked us straight to Blarney Castle, overtaking a Princess coach heading in the same direction. The plan, of course, was to beat the crowds and we did that, arriving at the gate 10 mins. before opening, with pre-purchased tickets and head of the queue J
The next instruction was to head straight to the impressive Blarney Castle, set in lovely parklands and gardens – quite a handsome picture…. The moment we entered we realised that the inhabitants must have been very small and skinny as the narrow, spiralling staircase was a challenging climb on the dank and slippery, thick, steep stone steps.
On reaching the top, and enjoying the magnificent views, we witnessed those before us "kissing the Blarney Stone" and although we had trepidations, we also took the plunge and did the deed!! We will now be 'gifted with the power of eloquence'…. let's hope so too J The climb down was a lot easier and we felt so lucky to have done the climb, as the queue was now weaving way down the hill – little would they have realised that they would be waiting for hours!!
A short walk across to the Blarney Woollen Mill Shop (once an operating mill) – totally filled to the rafters with the most wonderful array of woollen aran knitwear of many colours and designs. Also coats, suits, hats, bags, scarves, Waterford Crystal, Irish Linen, jewellery, homewares, etc., were all on display trying to tempt us, but we resisted and just enjoyed walking the many floors of this most glorious shop.
Back in the bus and a quick stop at Fort Charles and then to the pretty fishing port of Kinsale for lunch. Gorgeous colourful shops and pubs with easy walking around the delightful harbour and we chose Kitty O'Ses, where Colin enjoyed a Murphy's and me a chardy, with Corned Beef & Cabbage for Colin and Seafood Chowder for me, yum, yum!!
Unfortunately, it started to rain and on the way back to Cobh it got quite heavy, which cut our tour a little short. It did mean though that we had more time to spend at the 'Rob Roy' pub, where the band played for 7 hours solid. The residents of Cobh call the day the Princess World Cruise comes to town, "Australia Day", and they go all out to make the passengers feel very welcome by decorating their streets and shops with Aussie flags, posters, kangaroos and the like, as well as giving the ship a massive musical cheerio and send off on a good day, but no send off tonight for us due to the inclement weather.
We returned to the ship around 8ish and needed some warm food, before hitting the sack, even before the ship left the port.
Brilliant day and so very happy that my little tour was a resounding success J
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