Mom, Mary, Katherine and I had two objectives for Monday: 1) see what the town of Cobh had to offer and 2) see the Jameson Distillery in Middleton.\u00a0 We got up early, ate our potatoes like good Irish people, and headed toward Cobh.<\/p>\n
The first thing we noticed is that Ireland is building an interstate from Dublin to Cork, the two largest cities.\u00a0 In the last week I’ve heard several British radio talkshow hosts complaining that the Irish don’t know how to drive on these new roads, but at the time we were quite excited to be driving on a road without grass down the middle.<\/p>\n
We got to Cobh (pronounced “Cove”) – it was a rare, beautiful day in Ireland – and walked along the water for a bit.\u00a0 We decided to go on the “Titanic Trail” tour because the posters said it was “internationally acclaimed.”\u00a0 The pictures of the town below are meant to show how colorful everything is.\u00a0 We also learned that because of Cobh’s dependance on the sea trade most of these buildings are several hundred years old, as opposed to most of the rest of Ireland where the recession in the 1960s forced people to build ugly buildings – or something like that.\u00a0 The tour guide said so.<\/p>\n
It turns out that our tour guide researched all the information he shared with us himself, has been giving this tour for 12 years, has written books on the subject, done documentaries with the BBC on several subjects, and has basically revitalized the tourism sector of Cobh by himself.\u00a0 On our tour he carried around pictures he’d taken of Titanic-related artifacts and showed them all to us.\u00a0 He personally knows the last living survivor of the Titanic (she was 9 weeks old at the time).\u00a0 All in all, he was a pretty good tour guide.<\/p>\n
The tour ends in a local pub where we all got a free glass of Beamish, a very dark liquid that makes one Squeamish.\u00a0 Katherine and I both had a sip (see below for proof) and moved on to better things.\u00a0 Mom and Mary managed to tolerate it – I don’t know how.<\/p>\n
The next pictures you’ll see are of St. Cormac’s Cathedral.\u00a0 It took 80-some years to complete and houses Ireland’s only<\/em> carillon – and it only has 49 bells.\u00a0 For those keeping track, that’s USA: 270, Ireland: 1.\u00a0 And Iowa State’s campanile has 50 bells.<\/p>\n After leaving Cobh we headed to the Jameson Experience at the Old Jameson Distillery.\u00a0 We again avoided the tour because a) it cost money, b) we were short on time, and c) we didn’t really care.\u00a0 We raided the gift shop instead.<\/p>\n The last few pictures you’ll see are of some of the real estate around Cobh, most notably an 800-year-old castle.\u00a0 The price was not advertised.<\/p>\n\n\t\t