Mer had us up a bit earlier than we were the last few days, and after breakfast, I found out why. We headed down to the Tourist Information Center, where around 9:00 we met up with Barry, a local man who gives really entertaining and informative tours of Kinsale. We headed off with Barry and seven other Americans, which kept the narrative personal. Barry took us on a short walk to the harbor, and up the hill to where part of the old town wall is located, and then down to the main square where the harbor used to come up to, and finished off at the courthouse. Along the way, he told us about the Battle of Kinsale, and the British fortification of the town after they won that battle. He also said how the battle had ripple effects down to recent times – it seems that two of the main Irish leaders in the battle were from northern Ireland, and their land was confiscated and given over to Protestant Scottish settlers. This led more or less directly to Northern Ireland’s being separated from the Republic after the 1921 independence.

After the tour, we grabbed the bus back to Cork, to go pick up The Car. The car that gets driven on the wrong side of the road. By me. In a stick-shift. Yay. I did decide to pay the not-cheap option of getting full coverage on the car — I have seen too may Irish roads to be relaxed about insurance.

We drove out of Cork on the way east to Cobh (pronounced “cove”). A few thoughts about driving in Ireland – traffic laws are suggestions. Speed limits can be optional, no-passing zones can force you onto the shoulder to avoid oncoming passing traffic, parking in one lane of a two-lane road is common. Oh, yeah – and they drive on the wrong side of the road. Still, I managed, although the driving takes much of my attention, which makes me feel as if I’m nineteen again.

We parked in Cobh by Cobh’s huge and central cathedral. It seemed like a huge cathedral for a smaller town, but the town is one of the busiest ports in Ireland. I suspect there is some money in town. But we were there to see “The Titanic Experience” — an interactive museum about the Titanic.

The Titanic’s last port of call before it sailed across the Atlantic was Cobh (Queenstown at the time). The museum actually is situated in the old ticket office, and you can recognize the building in old pictures; 123 people boarded the Titanic at Cobh, and a handful got off there.

The museum was fairly small, but excellent. They had mockups of a third-class and a first-class room, and the third-class room was not too bad, actually. It had electric lights and running water, and food was included with the ticket (that was not common at the time). The first-class room (which cost $69,000 in today’s money) was not terribly big, but it did get the user access to the first-class amenities, like the dining and reading rooms.

The last room in the museum told all the things that went wrong on the trip, and it was amazing how they piled up — the ship was going near maximum speed at night through an area known to have icebergs. The radio operators did not work for the ship (they were private operators), and they did not pass on all the ice warnings they received. The binoculars were missing from the lookout tower, so the lookouts had to rely on their eyes only. A sudden ten-degree temperature drop (common around icebergs) was ignored. There were a few more things that I forget as well, but many things went wrong on the Titanic.

We grabbed a quick supermarket late lunch, and headed back to the car. Mer had me drive further east, to the small coastal town of Ardmore. Ardmore has an amazing beach (where I waded in the Atlantic), a path along a dramatic (but still safe) cliff area , a still-standing round tower, and a couple of holy wells. On top of that, the town was very well-kept and cute, and it had a tea room/coffee shop with excellent cupcakes.

We got to hear an older man playing guitar and singing, and he was very talented. I chatted with him for a few minutes, and he plays five instruments in all, and he leads tours of the cliff walk. Sadly, as it was after 5:00, he was done for the evening, but that was a fun encounter. Previously, on the beach, a nice man took our picture, and we chatted for a minute or two about how he was trying to train his puppy to like the ocean (the puppy was not so sure about it).

We did the cliff walk at a leisurely pace, and wandered around the church and round tower and cemetery when we got there. We still noticed the use of Scripture quotations on many of the headstones, although it was not quite so common on the headstones of the last thirty years (although it still happened on some of them). Sadly, the round tower is closed to the public, but it is in great shape. The church was in ruins with no roof, but the walls were still intact.

Our walk got us back to town and the car. The drive back to Kinsale was okay, although I stayed in the slow lane of any roads that had two lanes, just to be on the safe side. Back in Kinsale, we ate again at the Indian restaurant, Cobra Tandoori, as we had on Friday. It was still excellent. After supper, we checked e-mail and updated the blog by using the Tap Tavern’s internet access, chatted with a couple of Americans from the New York area, and then came home.