The wake up call at 5:45 AM really came early this morning, but at least we had not stayed out too late last night, and got a good night’s sleep. After I got ready, I headed down to the International Café for our breakfast sandwiches and yogurt parfaits, we wanted a hearty breakfast for today’s adventure. Our plan was to be off the ship by 7:00 AM, and walk to the train station that is right next to the port, actually, we could see it from our balcony. The train to Cork, Ireland was due to arrive at 7:30 AM, but we needed to purchase tickets from the automated machine, and since that does not always go smoothly, so we wanted extra time in case we had difficulty with the ticket purchase. The trains to Cork run every 30 minutes, and we did not want to miss the first one at 7:30 AM, we had a fairly tight connection in Cork for the bus ride to Blarney Castle.
The ticket machine worked flawlessly, the credit card worked, and all of the instructions were in English, both for the ticket machine and for the credit card entry screen, which is separate from the ticketing screen. Sometimes, we have problems because in other countries, we can choose the ticket selection screen to be in English, but the credit card reader and its separate screen of instructions is not, so we don’t know if we are really following the instructions correctly when we have problems.
We purchased our Cobh to Cork Day Return tickets, and waited about 15 minutes for the train to arrive. The Cobh Station is at the end of the line, and there were not many people boarding there, so we had no problem getting forward facing seats. The total train time to Cork was 24 minutes, and we made about 7 stops. By the time we arrived in Cork, the train was fairly full, mostly with school kids going to school in Cork. The majority of the kids had some type of school uniform on.
Once we arrived at the Cork Station, we headed out the exit for the walk to the main bus station, about 10 minutes away. Although we had directions written down, we still used the offline Google Mapping app just to verify our location.
Once we were at the bus station, we knew our bus did not actually stop at the station, but on a side street about a block away. However, we were not quite sure where the stop was located, other than it was Station 14 on the bus departure listing. We did not see Station 14 at the terminal, so we walked to the location where we had gotten on the same bus several years ago. We finally found the stop, and the bus arrived. Luckily, Stephanie asked to verify if this was the bus to Blarney Castle, and the driver said it was not, we needed to take the No. 215 bus from the terminal, not here. This was the bus coming from Blarney, not going to it. We were a little confused, we thought we had the bus direction correct, and knew this was where we had gotten the bus last time we did this same route.
We walked back to the bus terminal, and went inside and finally saw where Station 14 was, and that it was indeed located at the station. However, it was on the far end of the station, not on the sides where the station number signs were easily seen. We still had about 5 minutes for the bus to arrive, and it was also a little late arriving, so all was good, and we were still on our schedule. We wondered if they had moved the bus stops around to make it easier for tourists to find the stop at the station, we knew for a fact that it was very confusing last time we were here, and apparently, not much better this time either.
First View Of The Blarney Castle
The bus ride to Blarney Castle was about 25 minutes, and we made several stops along the way. Once at the stop for the Castle, it was just a short walk to the ticket office. It had been foggy, cool and overcast all morning, and now there was a light drizzle. It looked like we had beaten the cruise line tours to the castle, but once inside the grounds, we could see we had not, there were already several groups inside. We knew we needed to head straight for the castle and try to beat as many people there as we could to minimize the time waiting in line for the climb to the top of the castle to kiss the Blarney Stone.
When we finally got to the castle, there was already a fairly long line, but not too bad. It took us about 35 minutes to get to the top of the castle where the Blarney Stone is. The worst part was the a section of very narrow stairs and stone circular stairs to go up, all while being in a line that moved, but moved very slowly. It was not something for mobility impaired people, in our opinion, and there was only a small sign to let people know it was a difficult climb, and at your own risk.
Stephanie Kissing The Blarney Stone
We finally got to the top, and Stephanie did the kissing of the stone. We had both done it before, and once was enough for me. We then headed back down to the ground floor, and outside, where we saw the terribly long line that had now formed. If we had seen that long of a line when we arrived, we would not have gone to the top. The line extended well past the point identified as being at least a 90 minute wait to get to the top of the castle.
The Bond’s At Blarney Castle
It was really nice that the sun was now breaking through the fog, and within a few minutes, there was a lot of blue sky and sunshine. Last time we were here, it was raining and cloudy the entire time. We took some time to do some photos with the tripod to take advantage of the great sunny weather.
We did not stay much longer, we wanted to make the next bus connection back to Cork, and the buses only come twice an hour. We caught the 11:23 AM bus back to Cork, and the drop off point was the same as the stop we had mistakenly been at this morning, so we knew exactly how to get back to the main bus terminal from there.
The next part of today’s plan was to take another bus to Kinsale, a small waterfront town about a 45 minute bus ride away.
Blarney Castle On A Sunny Day
We had some spare time before the Kinsale bus departed. We bought our return bus ticket from the machine inside the terminal, and once again, the ticket purchase went off without a hitch, and we were able to charge everything on the credit card. The tickets can be bought on the bus for the same price, but you can only purchase a single journey ticket, and sometimes, you need small bill denominations in order to get change. We were not sure about being able to use a credit card on the bus.
There was a line already formed when the bus arrived at the station, but it was a double deck bus with plenty of seats. The bus was fairly crowded because it is also the bus that goes to the Cork Airport, so some people had luggage which they placed under the bus in the storage compartment, which was all self serve. Since it was a double deck bus, we got seats upstairs for the better views. The ride was uneventful other than the small narrow roads and low hanging limbs, the top of the bus kept hitting tree branches in many locations along the way.
Kinsale
We arrived in Kinsale on time, and the town was full of tour groups. We had planned to take a walk over to the Charles Fort, a 2 km walk each way on either the Scilly Walk or the High Trail. We stopped off at the Tourist Information building and got a map for the walking trails. There was also a restroom there, so after the break, we headed to the trail. Even with the map, it was a little confusing, so we decided to take the high road route to the fort, which was easier to find and follow. It was a little more hilly than we anticipated, especially the portion near the fort. We went down all the way to the water, then back uphill quite a distance to get to the fort. It was partly cloudy, but still seemed warm with all the hill climbing.
Kinsale From The Charles Fort
Once we arrived at the Charles Fort, all we did was take photos since we were a little pressed for time, wanting to make the 4:00 PM bus back to Cork. We opted to skip the fort entrance and tour, and headed back to Kinsale, this time taking the lower Scilly Walk. We had seen where it intercepted the high road route on the way to the fort. It was good that we did the trails in the direction we did, we saw more scenic views heading back to Kinsale on the Scilly Trail than we would have if we had gone this way first, all the good views would have been behind us going the other direction to the fort.
Charles Fort
This route was about 20 feet above the water level in the inlet. The interesting thing was the amount of blackberry vines growing along the trail. That and the butterfly bushes that were all over on both sides of the trail. We did see some people eating the blackberries, but we opted not to for safety.
The whole walk took about one hour and fifteen minutes, and we were back in Kinsale. We walked around the town looking for something to eat, and found a Spar Grocery, which had a Deli and some interesting sandwiches. We purchased something that was similar to a multi layer BLT, but had chicken, bacon, ham and cheese on two different layers. We split a sandwich and also got some potato chips. They heated the sandwich and cut it in half to make it easier to share.
Pretty Buildings Near The Charles Fort
We headed back to the bus stop and sat on a bench there and ate. We knew the bus can get crowded, so we wanted to wait in the line early, insuring we would get on the next bus at 4:00 PM. The bus came, and we were surprised to see it was only a single level bus, and there was quite a crowd waiting to get on. We were glad we were at the front of the line, we were not sure everyone was going to fit on the smaller bus.
To our surprise, everyone in line did fit on the smaller bus, and there were still a few empty seats. We took the same route back, stopping at the airport, and then arrived back at the Cork Bus Station. We knew this bus also went directly to the train station, based on the schedule, but I had asked the driver when we got on just to make sure.
When we got to the bus station, most everyone got off. There were several cruise passengers on board, and there was some confusion about the bus going to the train station. The driver asked about our tickets, and no one had a ticket for going past the bus station, and all the way to the train station. We did not know it was an additional charge to go that one more stop. However, the bus driver was sympathetic to two older couples, they were using canes for walking, and he said we could all stay on to the next stop, but told us we should buy specific station to station tickets next time.
Once we arrived at the Train Station, it was almost time for the next train departure back to Cobh. We barely made it through the station and out to our platform before the train was scheduled to depart. I could not locate my ticket for the entry through the automated turnstiles, but a station worker allowed me to go through with Stephanie, using her ticket, I am sure he knew we both had tickets since we looked like tourists, and had gotten there together this morning. It was now beginning to rain as we boarded the train.
The train was full of students returning home from school, and we had to sit facing backwards to the train’s direction of travel, which Stephanie is not fond of. Once back in Cobh, we opted to walk into the town before heading back to the ship, we were afraid we would not come back off the ship if we got back to the room since we were so tired. The sun was back out, and it was a nice late afternoon.
The Cathedral in Cobh
Of course we walked up more steps to the Catholic Church, which is on a hill above the town. It was the last hill climb for the day, we were done climbing. We strolled along the waterfront, the buildings there are nicely decorated. There were several pubs with live music, but we were too tired to stop in for a beer.
It was about 6:00 PM when we got back to our cabin on the ship and dropped off our backpacks, and changed into more comfortable shoes. Stephanie checked the laundromat, and there was an empty machine, so we decided to do a load of laundry while we had the chance. We spent the duration of the washer run time in Vines, and also the subsequent dry cycle while having some wine and tapas. Stephanie went back and forth to the laundry and I saved our places at the bar.
Cobh From The Ship – Train Station at Bottom Left
After laundry was done, we decided to eat in the Dining Room for the first time on this cruise. It was not crowded yet, and there were a couple of items on the menu we really liked, the goat cheese soufflé appetizer, and the scallops entrée. It was enjoyable, but the service was just OK, and the food was just average, except for the soufflé, which was fantastic. Stephanie finally got her cheesecake for desert, which we split. All in all it was a good dinner, and remarkably, had not taken that long, probably because the dining room was not very full.
After dinner, we headed to Crooner’s for a couple of beverages, and to watch our departure from Cobh at 10:00 PM, through the windows. We headed back to the room about 10:30 PM, too tired from the long day to stay out late. Tomorrow is the first of five sea days as we head across the Atlantic Ocean to Halifax, Nova Scotia. We will definitely be sleeping in, and taking advantage of gaining an hour with the first time change that occurs tonight.