We got up stupid early Saturday morning for our marathon trip to Cork, that we made even more complex by adding in an extra piece at the last minute. But we will get to that. It’s not that it’s that far to any point in Ireland, it’s doing these trips by public transport. I guess if you have always lived that way then it’s no big deal. But to us car loving, west coast dwelling (what’s public transport?) peoples it just not efficient. Yet it is. Whatever.
The bleary eyed travelers boarded the 0713 bus to Limerick Colbert Station. We did have enough time to grab a coffee (tea pour moi) and snack before our train departed for Cork.
I will say the train station in Cork is much nicer (read: cleaner, less grungy) than the one in Limerick! Cork itself is a lovely city. The downtown, old section is quite compact and easy to navigate. We had made the decision to walk to our B & B (Garnish House. Very nice. Super comfy bed!)…it looked closer on the map. It was a good 25 minutes while wearing my (rather heavy) backpack. Oh well, that helped justify scones. We had a little time before meeting up with our tour guide, Jack of Cork City Walks, so we wandered for a bit and had lunch at Burritos and Blues- ah! Mexican food, Chipotle style. Not bad at all. Jack was extremely knowledgeable regarding the history of Cork. Without that tour we would not have had any idea that Cork was once comprised of many islands, and the waterways were all culverted about 200 years ago. This area of Ireland has its own particular speech which can be very difficult to understand and I think the people of Cork take great pride in this 🙂 They also have a very tongue in cheek attitude, even more so than the rest of Ireland I think:
Cork was a walled city until 1690 when the walls were destroyed by cannon fire. How did Cork acknowledge this feat?
And then Starbucks came to town…one of the oldest buildings still standing in Cork (from 1730) was available and Starbucks moved into it. Apparently, it originally had a large Starbucks sign on the building. Cork city made the company take down that sign – and this Starbucks now has the smallest sign on of any of the stores (according to our tour guide of course)
Within the city center of Cork is the English Market. The market originated in 1610, with the current buildings dating from 1786. It is not unlike Pike Place Market in Seattle. Smells just as weird too. There are several amazing food stalls (the Husband had, as he claimed, the best espresso ever), and several…not so amazing one stalls:
This was a fun site too –
After we forced ourselves out of the incredibly comfortable bed on Sunday morning, we had an amazing breakfast (it was a B & B after all) and decided that we would take the little train out to Cobh. This town was the final stop of the Titanic before it set out across the Atlantic, and we all know how that ended.
When we got to Cobh (quick 25 minute ride from Cork station on the little commuter train) we were greeted by this sight:
How do you pronounce Cobh? Well, since you asked…there is no B in the Gaelic language. So it is sort of said “cove”, with a little “cobe”. For a long time it was spelled Cobe. Then, prior to a visit by Queen Victoria, it was renamed Queenstown. This was probably done because no one said the original name right. After Irish independence in 1922 it went back to its Gaelic spelling of Cobh. And nobody says it right anyway.
Our main destination in Cobh was the Titanic Experience. This is located in the White Star Lines building on the waterfront, the actual building that the last Titanic passengers boarded the ship from.
The Titanic Experience is designed to give modern people a feel for what the Titanic passengers saw and experienced at the beginning of their voyage. It was well done, but don’t expect Titanic artifacts. There were very few. We are looking forward to going to the big Titanic museum in Belfast when we go north.
We thoroughly enjoyed our whirlwind trip to Cork. We were sad that we did not get out to Midleton (whiskey heaven) and to see the Choctaw Indian monument near there. Why is there a Choctaw Indian monument in Ireland? That is actually a really neat story: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/cork-sculpture-recalls-generosity-of-choctaw-nation-during-famine-1.3118580
Next weekend is the much bypassed city of Ennis. We were so intrigued by the place when we stopped for breakfast on the Galway trip that we decided to spend a weekend there!