County Cork, Ireland: Bunratty, Kinsale, Middleton and Cobh: RCCL Jewel of the Seas - Northern Europe Cruise

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We woke up to a beautiful sunrise this morning as the ship glided into Cobh harbor. The town looked pretty in the morning light and we laughed as we passed a bunch of young guys up on the hill, swaying arm in arm, singing at the top of their lungs, trying to get the attention of the ship’s passengers.

We enjoyed our breakfast on the verandah in the cool, fresh air. It was shaping up to be a lovely day.

We disembarked and quickly found our private driver guide for the day, Kevin, from Butler’s Buses. After greetings all around, we headed for Blarney Castle. On the way, Kevin filled us in with information about the town of Cobh and County Cork. Cobh was the last place the Titanic stopped before making her fateful crossing across the Atlantic. The Lusitania ship also sunk off her coast.

We beat the tour buses to Blarney and were the first folks to enter the Castle grounds. The area around the castle is green and lush. We strolled through the grounds and entered the castle gate. It was a long walk up the spiral stone step staircase. Once we reached the top rampart, we took turns lying on our back, grasping the hand rails, and sliding ourselves with our head extended over the edge, to kiss the blarney stone. Legend has it, kissing the blarney stone with bless you with the gift of eloquent speech…..a.k.a. a good B.S. artist !!

We returned back to the bus and headed towards the seaside village of Kinsale. This is a quaint old fishing village, filled with the history of being one of Ireland’s oldest ports. We joined in on the walking tour that begins at the Tourist office. We covered the waterfront and pedestrian street areas for about 90 minutes, and then headed to Jim Edwards’ pub for a couple of pints. We passed on the food since the service was so slow.

What we found interesting, was that the wait and bar staffs in both Dublin and Kinsale were Eastern European. Kevin told us that this was becoming the norm throughout Ireland, because most of the Irish population is now working in the industrial and tech industries. The Irish government has been granting six month work visas to the Eastern Europeans to handle the service industry worker shortage.

Our next stop was the Middleton Irish Whiskey Distillery in Cork. We took an informative guided tour through the old factory and received a drink of Jameson Irish whiskey in the hospitality center at the end of the tour. Danny was chosen to be a taste tester, where he had a chance to sample different types of whiskey, scotch and bourbon, to show the difference between these and the triple distilled spirit of Jameson’s.

Our last stop was at the Cathedral on the hill in Cobh, which offered a lovely view over the harbor. We drove down the street of row houses nicknamed the deck of cards, and it was easy to see why since the street was very steep and the peaked roofs lined up together looked like its name.

We enjoyed sail away from the Vortex and had a casual dinner.

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Photos

Danny kisses the Blarney Stone
Now, he's an eloquent B.S. Artist !!!

Whiskey Taster
Middleton's Whiskey Distillery

Cobh
Deck of Cards Row Houses