Today is another short port day – 11a to 6p – but it is our last opportunity to walk ashore before our four days at sea, which are looking like they will be fairly active thanks to Tropical Depression Ian. Since we have been here quite a few times before, we have decided to just take it easy and have booked a Titanic Trail walking tour with one of the local Titanic experts.
We dock on time at 11, but our tour isn’t until 2pm, so we aren’t rushing to go ashore. We had a late breakfast in our room, which will serve as lunch, again, no need to eat off the ship. We end up getting antsy (what a surprise!) and hop off a little before noon. Thanks to Nancy our Guernsey friend, we have a mission in Cobh - to find a bank and exchange our UK Pounds for Euros. We were trying to figure out what to do with the excess currency (we got way too much in London, thinking we’d have to pay Roger in cash for the hotel) and were thinking about waiting to exchange it at the Montreal airport. But Nancy gave us the idea to find a bank here in Cobh – which makes sense, they are used to getting British Pounds and will probably have a better rate.
After debating and choosing not to go to the Heritage Museum (we’ve already done that), we head down the street to the first bank we can find. There we easily exchange all our Pounds for Euros – they’ll come in much more handy since we’ll be in Italy in November – for a very good rate. Yay – mission accomplished.
We wander around the waterfront for a bit, pop into the TA for a map, and then decide to hit the pub – Kelly’s no less! Takes us back to the Outer Banks, well, in name only. Ed gets to try a local craft brew – Franciscan Well – and Sunny cuddles up to a great Chilean Sauv Blanc.
Enough time wasted, we head up the street to the Commodore hotel to meet our tour. Turns out we get Dr. Michael Martin, the owner of the tour company, and a top Titanic Expert. He’s a renowned historian and has written books on the Titanic and Lusitania, and is extremely well versed in the history of Cobh. It is a small tour today, only 7 of us (another couple from the ship, a young couple with a baby and a single guy, also from the ship, who joins us late) and we all gather around to listen to the fascinating stories of the town, the ships and the tragedies.
The tour takes about an hour and a half, and we don’t walk nearly as far as we had anticipated. We thought he would take us all the way up to the cathedral, but we end up staying down on the waterfront, which is fine. We walk past the Lusitania memorial and the Titanic memorial marker, while listening to Michael recount history.
We actually end the tour here, after he points out the Titanic Museum, in the original White Star building, and gives us directions to Jack Doyle’s pub up the hill above the cathedral where we can get a sample of the local stout. The tour was a very nice little diversion, something fun to do on our last day on terra firma.
We take the trek up the steep hill to the cathedral, snapping pictures all the way. The cathedral is an amazing structure, huge and imposing, and towering over the town and harbor. Michael has told us it was funded by all the sailors and transit passengers and family who came here and got blessings before they crossed the ocean.
We continue up the hill and find Jack Doyle’s easily enough. A typical Irish pub, with a cadre of locals hanging around. Bellying up to the bar, we get our free samples of Irish “black beer,” (an Irish Stout) called Beamish. And they are big samples too – probably at least 1/2 a pint! Not like the cute little samples we are used to – like at Blue Ghost. Very nice. I end up giving Ed my Beamish, and ordering wine. Only fair to buy something since they are giving us big free beers.
The couple with the baby that was on our tour also makes it to the pub, and spend a lovely time chatting with them. They are from Dublin and here just as a little holiday, a test trip, their first with the baby, who is adorable. They seem to be doing well, at least the baby (Emily) seems quite happy, and they are very interesting and fun companions.
After our beverages, we trek back down the huge hill, which is worse than coming up! It’s a killer on our knees. Once on the waterfront, we walk behind the Titanic museum and snap a shot of the original pier from which the tenders left going to the Titanic.
A final visit to the Annie Moore statue (she departed from Cobh, and was the first immigrant to the US to pass through Ellis Island) …
…and we’re back on board with plenty of time for our scenic sail away, following the path, but hopefully not the fate, of the Titanic across the Atlantic.
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