Sat, 21 Jun 2003

author Tim	location Glenross Caravan & Camping Park, Glenbeigh, Kerry, Ireland
posted 09:28 BST 24/06/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Ireland/Ireland 1 ( all photos )

Cork ( 20 photos )
We took a first swipe at going to kiss the fabled Blarney stone, about 3km from the caravan park. However, as we arrived and had just completed the rather long leaving-the-van routine of locking everything and putting valuables out of sight, etc., wandered over to the ticket office and it started raining.
Sure, that happens plenty of places, but the castle and its grounds are quite expansive and almost all un-covered, so for our hefty entrance fee, we wanted to enjoy it.
So, back in the bus and on to the next port of call, the Old Midleton Distillery. After dragging the girls to lots of distilleries all around Scotland, this was to be my one and only one over here - distillers of my favourite Jameson whiskey. This place actually has been superceeded by one down the road, but it was great to see the way things used to work, and since it wasn't running, you get a lot closer to the action. At the tasting at the end, Liz even started to like the stuff...
Next, we wandered down the road to the town of Cobh (pronounced "cove"). A nice little sea-side resort, it was the last port of call for the Titanic, and as such has the "White Star Line Hotel" and other such tourist-isms. We escaped most of this at a little cafe for a light brunch, before wandering back up the steep hills to the van.
People had mentioned to us a few times that the town (as opposed to the county) of Cork was worth visiting. So, we tried. However, the Irish seem to have a huge dislike for labelling their streets in any fashion. Road signs are an approximation at best, and we don't have particularly detailed maps which doesn't help much either. So, trying to park an over-height van in the middle of a city was always going to be a challenge. We discovered all manner of interesting back streets, but ended up almost totally lost. Giving up, we returned to our caravan park to attempt to get into Cork another way.
For our second attempt, we drove the van into the town of Blarney, where there is a bus that goes into the centre of Cork. "So", you might say, "you just got on that bus". Well, we found the bus stop eventually (the map of that town is even worse than the one of Cork), and got there at 3:25, just in time for the 3:30 bus. By about 3:55, we thought that the 4:00 bus might turn up. By about 4:20 we figured if a bus ever did turn up, most things in the town would be closed anyway, so we gave up Cork Attempt Two, heading to the Blarney Stone Hotel for a quiet drink with the other tourists. There was a noisy wedding driving past to presumably kiss the stone together, so we decided against going to look at that again.
Back to cook dinner, before wandering around the Blarney Golf Course next-door.

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