Ireland Day 5

Before talking about Day 5, I need to mention Karyn's find at dinner on Day 4. Yes, that is a magnetized knife!! We aren't quite sure how or why it was magnetized but it sure entertained the table at dinner!

Anyway, on with Day 5. We were up and on the coach at 9:00--after our good old full Irish Breakfast. We headed to Cobh (pronounced Cove). Cobh, once known as Queenstown, is a sheltered seaport on the south coast of County Cork. It was from here that the Lusitania and the Titanic set sail on their last voyages.

Our first stop was near St. Colman's Cathedral. It is a large Catholic cathedral and is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Cloyne. Since it was Sunday morning and mass was being held--and we didn't have the time--we weren't able to go inside but we did get some pictures.Thanks to a friendly parishioner,we were also pointed out where the Bishop lives. What I found more fascinating that the cathedral and the Bishop's house were the stairstep houses. From here we headed down to the harbor to go to the Cobh Museum. I was really looking forward to this as it apparently has a lot of Titanic history. Mr. Snowbird and I were interested in this as his mother who was born in England was booked on the Titanic! Her father had sailed to New York some weeks before and sailed on the Olympic. When he found that the family was booked on the Titanic he requested that mother change the reservations since he felt that the Olympic was a fine ship and they could come on it. And she did--and they sailed a week after the Titanic sank. Anyway, I digress! When we got to the museum, we found that Sunday hours were different and it wasn't going to be open for a couple of hours. So, no museum! But we were able to roam the town and take a few more pictures.

The Annie Moore statue is identical to the one on Ellis Island. Annie and her brothers were the first immigrants processed at Ellis Island. They sailed from Cobh/Queenstown.As I mentioned, the Lusitania and the Titanic both sailed from here. There are two monuments to these ships and those who died aboard them. From Cobh we drove to Kinsale, a beautiful little Medieval town. We were given a couple of hours for lunch and time to shop. We were standing outside a restaurant considering it when a local walked up and told us that we didn't really want to eat there. She didn't say why but we took her advice and went across the street. We noticed that shops and restaurants were putting religous displays outside on the sidewalks. Then we noticed the police blocking off the streets. When we asked why, we were told that it was Corpus Christi. I wasn't sure what that was but found out that it is a Western Catholic feast day. We found that outdoor church services were being held and it appeared that it was also First Communion. After the service, there was a parade through the streets led by a Pipe Band. After our time in Kinsale, we headed to Blarney Castle and Blarney Woolen Mills.We decided to climb to the top of the castle and found that it wasn't too hard of a climb, especially when there were about 30 school kids on the steps in front of us! The skies had been threatening but no rain all day-until we got to the top of the castle where there was no protection and the rain was actually blowing sideways. It did let up soon though. We had already decided not to kiss the Blarney Stone but did have to walk by it. This is an example of what you have to do to kiss the stone. And yes, there are rules when kissing the Blarney Stone.After our tour on top of the castle we headed to the Blarney Woolen Mills store. It is a HUGE store with all kinds of stuff in it and for once we actually had time to do some shopping. I bought a few things but since we are moving to Florida, I didn't think it was too wise to buy any woolens!

So back to the hotel to pack our suitcases as we move on to a different hotel tomorrow.