day trip to Cobh

Woke up and ate an obscene breakfast at the Garnish House - scones, porridge, fruit, bacon, sausage, pudding, eggs, coffee, juice, and then they asked if we wanted pancakes. The Irish really like to eat a big breakfast! Over breakfast we decided to head out to Cobh to checkout the museum there which had been recommended by a couple of people we've talked to. On our way there we walked through the English Market which is like a Pike's Place market on steroids - lots of fresh produce, meats, poultry, fish, flowers, etc.

The train to Cobh was an easy 26 minute ride which we ran to catch at the last minute. The Cobh Heritage Museum is mostly about the mass exodus of Irish during the potato famines of the late 1840s and the ships that took them there, Cobh being the main port for ships to and from the US. The museum also had exhibits on the making of the Titanic, the sinking of the Lusitania, the contest between the various ship lines to make bigger, faster, more luxurious cruise ships and what it was like to travel on them.

After spending 90 minutes or so in the museum we stopped into local pub Kelly's for a pint before checking out the rest of the town. Cobh is built on a hillside so we got an extra workout going up and down the streets, some rivaling the streets of San Francisco. The center of Cobh is dominated by St Colman's cathedral.

While were wandering around Cobh a huge cruise ship pulled into port and was getting ready to dock. Having experienced the mass unloading of cruise ship people in Mexico we were quick to decide it was time to leave and ran for the train back to Cork.

That night we had dinner at Boqueria followed by a couple of pints and some traditional Irish music at Sin E, recommended by both our guidebook and our buddy Dave from the previous day.