Cork’s Harbour is south in the town of Cobh, pronounced Cove. Various taxi drivers have claimed its one of the largest harbours in the world or western hemisphere or largest natural harbour. We took a taxi to Cork’s train station.
Google maps says you can walk to Cobh in 30 minutes. It took almost 30 minutes on the train which looked pretty old. The windows even open.
Some interesting views out the window
Looking out at the harbour from next to the train station
The island, Strike Island, was a prison. It’s now a big tourist draw but the ferry tickets were sold out for the day and we were too late for the last crossing in any event.
We walked to the town centre. It’s small and full of tourists, many of whom are there to learn about their Irish roots. One attraction is the Irish Heritage Centre. We also saw many school groups walking about.
Found the tourist office. Up the hill is a row of colourful houses known as the Deck of Cards.
Walked to St Colman’s cathedral.
A bit of an uphill walk
The cathedral was started in the late 1800s and not consecrated until 1907. It is the tallest church in Ireland.
A huge cruise ship came into dock near the train station.
One of the big tourist attractions is the Titanic Experience. The last port the Titanic stopped at before crossing the Atlantic was Cobh. We gave it a pass. Instead we had a light lunch at a restaurant, Last Drop, overlooking the harbour while the cruise ship overlooked the restaurant.
Headed back to Cork on a very crowded train.
Looked around the town centre of Cork.
A tree seemed to be growing out of a chimney.
This was strange
The pedestrian street
The park at the end of the pedestrian area
A map of the park area in 1600:
Found a pub where we could sit outside and sketch.
Dinner was at Jacques, a local family run restaurant that focusses on local ingredients.
Nothing left of our starters of homemade pate for Scott and asparagus and oranges for me.
Forgot to take photos of the rest of dinner. Below is Irish tonic.
