Cork, Ireland and the Blarney Stone

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A two-fer today.   Our day will begin with a trip to Blarney Castle. And the Stone.   Later this evening we visit the Jameson distillery for a wee bit of spirits.   It is Ireland, after all. As we pull into Cork Bay, it is easy to see why they are called the “Emerald Isle”.   Under grey skies, we slowly drift between luscious banks.   The variety of plants is impressive. The bus ride today is short by comparison; just under an hour.   We drive through a lovely countryside and quaint villages, finally arriving in Blarney. The castle, well maintained, looms ahead.   It is not an imposing castle.   Size-wise, it does not compare to some of the castles we have seen on this trip.   It is dominated mostly by its tower.   As with every castle, it is built on a hill with a dominating view of the countryside.   Most of the surrounding lands have been converted to gardens and beyond, cow pastures. We of course have to kiss the stone despite J...
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Drake’s Passage

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January 10th was pretty nondescript.  We read, we ate, we drank ... we ate some more, we drank some more.


Day started with the “Top Tier” event.  We both think it is mostly a waste of time, we still go to make sure we don’t miss anything.  Next, Captain Stig gave another brief on weather.  He is both informative and very funny.  


“Captain, why did Royal select Serenade for this voyage?”

“Because it’s the best captained ship in the fleet.” 😂


“Captain, how do you think most passengers will find the transit through Drake’s Passage?”

“Uncomfortable” 🤣 


After the Captain’s brief, we went to another Enrichment lecture ... a pretty interesting one on photography and composing your pictures.


We met Joe Thompson ostensibly for a drink before dinner.  Five hours later, we are off to Giovani’s for dinner since we’ve missed the main dining room!  Yes, it was a long dinner.  However, we still were able to capture the sunset ...

That is literally as dark as it got all night!

And then, the morning of the 11th, we left the horn behind us and moved into Drake’s Passage.  After transiting through all day (and another still to go), can well understand the trepidation that sailor’s had/have about transiting this stretch of ocean.  Serenade is over 900 feet long, over 90,000 tonnes with state of the art stabilizers ... literally the size of an aircraft carrier! .. and she still has been rocking and rolling all day.  Ship seemed very empty most of the day, as many passengers chose to spend their day in their stateroom!  I chose to go spend the day in the concierge lounge going through photos and admiring the pitching seas outside.  After about 30 minutes, Judy bailed and went back to the cabin.  She did soldiered on and came back up later.



That is the ship heaving ... not the camera!


Later, when we went down for dinner, the window outside our table looked more like a washing machine





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Cork, Ireland and the Blarney Stone

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