May 14 – Cobh Ireland

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Welcome to Ireland! We got here about 4:00 today – 9 hours behind the original schedule due to the very rough seas. Unfortunately, last night was the worst of the cruise. Hopefully now that we have crossed the ocean, maybe the coming days will be smoother.

David went up to the buffet for Breakfast and then brought Janet some food in the cabin. Janet was just too tired to spend energy walking around the ship when David could bring something down to her. We have been in the cabin a lot of the time, but hopefully smoother sailing will allow us to visit more places on the ship in the future.

Since the ship was so late, we did not go on our excursion to the Jamison Distillery. That probably would have been interesting, but we had heard from our good friend Marcie Kingsbury that 3 weeks ago the tour involved a lot of walking over uneven ground and numerous steps. Altogether it would have been too much for Janet and she probably would have had to spend the whole time in the gift shop waiting for David. As it is, we can reread her description of the tour and feel like we had kind of been there anyway.

Lunch was hot dogs and French fries in the cabin, with sodas from the bar. We have been collecting quite a few dishes, but our steward came and cleaned the cabin and took away our collection of plates.

David went up on the deck while we were approaching Cobh and got a few pictures. It appears to be a pretty little town. Cobh has been a sailing port for centuries. This is where many went in order to flee the Irish Potato Famine - many sailed to the United States. This was also the last port for the Titanic before it headed for New York. There are a number of maritime museums and memorial statues in town, including one for the Lusitania, which was sunk not too far from this Irish coast. Some of the photo opportunities included the St Colman Cathedral on the hillside overlooking the harbor, and the distinctive “deck of cards” houses on the hillsides. Anyway, it seems like it would be a cute town to explore.

One of the nearby tourist attractions is Blarney Castle. We went there on a previous cruise and have been enjoying the “gift of gab” ever since – no need to keep kissing the Blarney Stone. It is quite a physical exercise to climb the stone spiral steps up the castle, and then lean backwards over the castle wall to kiss the stone. There probably a more flattering description somewhere, but that is the way we remember it.

We had dinner reservations at 5:20, so we did not try to go to town beforehand. There were only a few people in the dining room. For an appetizer, Janet had Shrimp Cocktail and David had Virgin Bloody Mary Crayfish. For her entrée, Janet had a Shrimp and Scallop Stew, and David had Braised Beef Pot Roast. For dessert, Janet had Peach Flambe and David had Wild Berry Cobbler (like last night).

We decided to go to the Princess Theater this evening. Since the ship was still docked with many people ashore, we expected it not to be too crowded. The show was Broadway Songs and Ballroom Dancing – that sure would have been a challenge for them if the show had been last night. Anyway, we enjoyed the show quite a lot.

The ship was scheduled to sail away from the Emerald Isle at 9:00, but excursion buses had still not returned. We are already scheduled to arrive 2 hours late tomorrow, but that will not be a problem for us as we are staying on board. That’s all for today.

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