Yesterday we docked in Cobh (pronounced Cove) Ireland, which was the last port of call of the Titanic...so yes, we're sort of following in her path. Belfast to Cobh to New York. Only she never made it and we will. We have radar, and we're heading more south and it's late summer not early spring.
Tom and I both loved this last port stop. We took a private tour of just 12 people from the Cruise Critic roll call group. We were in a new 16 passenger Mercedes Sprinter and we got to all the stops well ahead of the giant buses used by the cruise ships. Our tour included Blarney Castle, Cork, Kinsale and Cobh.
At our first stop, Tom hiked all the way up to the top of Blarney Castle and did the whole hang upside down thing, but chose not to actually kiss it after hearing about the teenagers who go up and pee on it. I stayed down below and tried to figure out which of the hundreds of heads hanging upside down in the dark was my husband. Any one picture looks like any other, so when you see the photo, pretend it's Tom. It may be him, but more likely it's just a random stranger in the line.
We next got a tour of Cork city, and then headed to Kinsale, a very picturesque harbor town with a gazillion restaurants and even a 3 star Michelin chef. We didn't eat there, but we did stop into a pub for lunch, beer and people watching.
We also were entertained for an hour or so by our driver Steve and his pal Paddy (another driver with the same company) who told jokes, stories and could be a vaudeville act together. Steve and Paddy served in the military together before they became tour guides and drivers.
Just before returning to the ship, Steve took us on a quick tour of the church at Cobh. One of the most beautiful I have seen. He mentioned something like 200 stonemasons worked on it, it took a great long time, but it is just amazing inside and out. Its the tall steeple you saw in my sunrise arrival picture on Facebook yesterday.
After a flurry of deciding which "cheap, rubbish whatnots for sale" we wanted to spend the last of our euros on (I bought Official Irish Dancing Socks) we returned to the ship. As did everyone else except one Russian couple, who were endlessly paged in English and Russian. The captain even blew the ships whistle twice as a notice. They finally showed up 40 minutes late to much jeering and catcalls, possibly escorted by some sort of official with a clipboard. Shortly thereafter we finally departed.
One thing that has been rather sweet and poignant in many of our ports is that we are the last ocean liner to visit for the season, so many folks come out with their families to see us off. It was the same in Cobh, where they wished us well and said "we'll see you next year" via megaphone as we departed.
The captain mentioned that the tropical storm ahead of us has moved north into our intended path, so we are detouring south by 180 nautical miles to avoid the heavier swells. It was noticeably rocky last night, but easy to fall asleep. Today dawned sunny, with intermittent bands of clouds. The noon report said we are 200 miles from Cobh, 4000 meters of water under us, moving at 20 knots, with a force 7 wind from the south and an air temperature of 63 degrees.
Today we pretty much did nothing. Slept in, ate breakfast, attended another "Once in a Lifetime Onboard Sale" and found the same stuff as the last three onboard sales so bought nothing. Then, having still not played Trivia and having seen the huge crowd departing the lounge, some of whom were mumbling about the outcome:
- What answer did you put?
- I wrote 'Iceland'
- We shoulda won, they marked us wrong.
- The prize is a magnet...stop it already.
...so I decided I was not much interested in playing trivia this cruise.
I did wander into the Library and contributed to the jigsaw puzzle in progress for about half an hour. Then it was time for lunch, a walk on the decks, and write the blog. It's now 2:15, we'll meet friends for Happy Hour drinks at 3, and then it's time for formal night. Dinner will be a decision between Chateaubriand or Lobster. I'm leaning lobster....but we'll see. There is a show after dinner, which we missed on the first cruise but Sandy and Ken said it was really great, so we're going to it tonight.
Repeat for tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after....did I mention previously that our days are 25 hours long? It's because we are slowly crossing time zones, and to arrive in Boston on the correct time zone, we turn our clocks back one hour each night all five days. It's much more civilized than trying to do it all on one day as required when flying.
I've got one picture on the iPad to include here, but the next post (Part 2) will be the photos from the phone yesterday. And if I can remember, I will try to take the phone with me tomorrow and get some pictures from around the ship.
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