COBH, IRELAND: 7th July

There may be some incriminating video somewhere of our evening in COBH!!!!It sure was a great evening!!! but more of that later.
Our day started extremely early as we had to do immigration for the Irish government and they wanted us at 6:30 am. As we had a private tour booked for 8 am and not sure how long immigration would take we all made sure that we were ready to leave the ship before 6:30. As it turned out it was very quick and we had over one hour before our scheduled meeting time. I used that time to get my blog posted.

16 of us hopped on board our coach and we were lucky to get to Blarney castle for the opening time of 9 am. This was great as those who wanted to do the castle and kiss the Blarney Stone were able to be the first in line. 

We had been there before and I had decided at that time that I wasn’t going to line up to do the kiss so hadn’t gone up. This time I decided I would climb up as no line to grab some photos and as it then a matter of having to walk past the stone it see petulant not to do it. 

If you haven’t been to Blarney castle, can I highly recommend this gorgeous estate of beautiful gardens to be well worth a visit and leave yourself plenty of time, in fact you could spend a whole day there.
Our next stop was supposed to be to Jamieson’s whiskey distillery but time restraints meant we had to have a stop for lunch before our walking tour of Youghal a lovely seaside village within its walled confines. 

We had three different guides give us different spiels from the clock tower, the town and the church. 

Back in COBH we headed into town and after a walk and a stop on the waterfront for a shared portion of fish and chips decided to head up to the very impressive cathedral on the hill above town. 
Simply stunning! So busy were we that we didn’t notice that the doors had been locked and as we left to exit realised we were locked in!!!

Luckily the caretaker was inside and told us he’d locked the doors to prevent any more visitors and showed us out a side door 🚪 phew 😅.

Back in COBH we headed into town and after a walk and a stop on the waterfront for a shared portion of fish and chips decided to head up to the very impressive cathedral on the hill above town. 

Simply stunning! So busy were we that we didn’t notice that the doors had been locked and as we left to exit realised we were locked in!!!

Luckily the caretaker was inside and told us he’d locked the doors to prevent any more visitors and showed us out a side door 🚪 phew 😅

Back in the town we were called over by friends Matt and Julie having drinks outside a local bar and before we knew it, by the time Paul and Michelle joined us we were quite a party.

NOW what I have to mention is that every year when the world cruise comes in from Australia COBH puts on a big party festival that they call Australia Day. 
So there is lots of music, drinking and eventually dancing. 

Having had a few wee local wines we girls decided it was time to join in.

What a blast, and it seemed all too soon that they were playing the song to forewarn us that it was time to leave for the ship in time for sail away.

away.

 It was the best sail away we have had. The locals lined the port and local water front. Waving us off, shining their phone torches and calling out Aussie, Aussie, Aussie as we’d call back oi oi oi.! 

Thanks Ireland, we had a blast.