We visited Cobh (pronouced ‘Cove’) and Spike Island (it’s been a monestary, a fort, a prison, and now a heritage site). Lovely town.
We spent an afternoon at Blarney Castle – there was no kissing of the Blarney Stone, as the Reid women have enough of a gift of the gab without getting a boost from hanging upside down and smooching a rock.
We spent a lot of time at the English Market in Cork – OMG, the seafood, the meats, the produce, you name it – they had it, we ate it.
Our last day in Cork was the Hop On Hop Off bus (I love those tours), then a tour of a prison (magnificent and terrible all in one), then an absolutely fantastic art gallery. The Crawford Art Gallery is due for renovations starting in the next couple of months, so we were lucky to see it while we had the chance. We found several of the exhibits interesting and my sister and I both fell in love with a small tapestry by an Irish artist, Ciara O’Connor.
I cannot recommend Cork enough as a holiday destination (and I even think I would say that had the weather not been absolutely spectacular).