Blogs from County Cork, Ireland, Europe - page 18

This is the 1st ‘episode’ of another of 'our' travel experiences. The collective ‘episodes’ describe our journey from our arrival in London (2nd week of June) and across the 'ditch' to Ireland for a few weeks before a return home in mid July. This ‘episode’ describes our few days in London, and our first fortnight in Ireland. As always, if you want to 'see' more detail in an accompanying picture, click it to enlarge. We've attached a few pics that give you a flavour of our journey, and some 'flow over' past the dialogue. Ahhhh, it's like being home again. There is something about London that is so appealing. Yes, it's a 'world' city with all the hubbub and 'buzz' that that implies. Yes, most speak a dialect of English, and after many of our r ... read more

Early to the train station to begin our 3 day 2 night tour to SW Ireland. Railtours Ireland is a very nifty travel company. With many tours to book online, all from Dublin, you can do a 1 to 5 day tour using rail for the long hauls, buses meet you at the station and provide sightseeing. Today we headed straight to Cork by train, were accompanied by a guide. We toured Blarney Castle, time to kiss the Blarney stone, shop, have lunch, then on to Cobh. This is the port of Cork with a long shipping history. The Queenstown ' Story told of the famine ships, the Titanic, which left here after boarding passengers for its ill fated voyage. The Lusitania was sunk off the coast here and local fishermen headed out to bring back ... read more

Got FR in the water this afternoon. High tide was about 1800 and we were in about 1500. Tied up to a pontoon and went through that annual moment when you start the engine for the first time. Will it start? Is there cooling water coming out the back? It actually started the first turn of the key and ran beautifully all the way to Baltimore. It was a beautiful day for it and it took about 90 minutes. There were a few hairy moments when we were reading 1.5M on the depth but we never bottomed out. Found our mooring occupied by a Glenans boat so we took the first available and spent the night on that. Next day the Glenans people explained that they had lost a mooring in a storm and had to ... read more

The abandoned skeletons of half finished houses litter the west coast of Ireland. They sit alongside hundreds of for sale signs, fire sale signs might be more appropriate. Each one a memorial to the great Irish experiment now lying in ruins like the occasional old abandoned castle you pass on the side of the road. 30 years ago Ireland began a bold experiment. It made a conscious commitment as a nation to invest in education. When Ireland joined the EEC, it had this ready-made workforce of highly educated young people. IT and other innovative companies and drug manufacturers set up or moved their European operations to Ireland. All looked rosy. UNTIL the financial spivs and the desk jockeys moved in. Average punters were encouraged to borrow beyond their capacity to repay on the promise of ever ... read more

Hello from Cobh (pronounced ‘cove’) Ireland. We arrived this morning right on time, with a nice smooth docking. We had left a 6:30 wake-up call (that’s 12:30 the night before in St Louis) so we would have plenty of time to get dressed and have breakfast before reporting to the main theater for our half-day tour to leave at 8:15. Our guide was named Theresa but apparently the driver did not have a name. We boarded the bus just a few feet from the gangway and drove through the little town of Cobh. The bus drove alongside the River Lee and through the center of Cork. Since this is Sunday morning, traffic was light in Cork and we moved along quickly. We traveled through the central city, with the guide pointing out many places and providing ... read more