Cork, Ireland

 

We docked in Cork, Ireland on May 11th.  The most famous excursion destination from this port was the Blarney Castle.  With retrospect, we wish we had chosen that excursion, but we didn't.  We chose an all-day trip that didn't meet our expectations or what was promised in the description.

The view from our balcony on the ship.  Isn't that beautiful?

This was probably my least favorite day of our trip.  It wasn't because of Cork.  It was beautiful and the places we saw were beautiful.  It was because of the excursion we chose.  

Our guide was not our favorite.  He was quite cocky, didn't give us the time we were promised at the Muckross house and told off-color jokes.  On these excursions, so much depends on your tour guide.

Cork is beautiful and colorful.

Our destination was Muckross House.  It was a long drive through beautiful Irish countryside.  It took a couple of hours to get there.  Because of disembarkation complications, we got a late start.

I didn't get a picture, except for these flowers outside, but we stopped at a little cafe on the way for a restroom break and supposedly to have tea and scones.  That is what was advertised in the description of the excursion.  Instead, we got water and store-bought dry cookies or biscuits as they are called there, like oreos without the cream.  It was a bit disappointing.

The Muckross house- a beautiful mansion and tourist destination

The grounds at this house were extensive and gorgeous.  The explanation of the excursion promised an hour there so we could explore those beautiful grounds, see the lake, visit the visitors center, and gift shop.  We had only 20 minutes or so.  It was so disappointing.  That wasn't much more than what it took to walk up there and back down to the buses.

Ken and Don did some birding and exploring while Ada and I went to the gift shop.  But there really wasn't time to shop much.  I bought some licorice toffee.  I don't think Ada got anything.

Sweet picture of Ken and Don

Ken's first sighting of a Rook

We then drove through more beautiful Irish countryside to a little town where we were to have lunch.

A beautiful view from an observation point on the mountain of the Killarney National Park lakes.  It was stunningly gorgeous!

Looking left.

I appreciated Ken getting out and taking these pictures as it was raining.

Killarney Cathedral

Our bus was too large to make the turn in this little town.  We stopped up traffic for quite a long time while the bus driver figured out how to get us out of this mess.  I took this picture from our bus window, showing all of the cars lined up and patiently waiting.  The line goes back further than the eye can see.

We had lunch in a local restaurant.  The lunch was sparse and there were way too many people stuffed in that room.  It was not a pleasant experience.

We then had over an hour free to shop in this town.  But there wasn't much there.  We didn't buy a thing, It was a pretty, little town.

After returning to the bus, we made the long drive back to Cork, taking pictures out of the bus windows.

Overlooking the dock as we approached.

St. Coleman's Cathedral

Lower Road Cobh.  It is often spelled this way as the Gaelic language doesn't have a k in it, so this is the closest they could come.  I guess I did learn something from our guide!

Back on our balcony for beautiful views of the sail away