Today is gorgeous! It was supposed to be miserable but the sun is shining brilliantly. We decided to do a day trip today from Kinsale to Cobh (pronounced "cove"). Nearly half of the 6 million emigrants from Ireland departed from Cobh. Cobh was also the last stop for the Titanic before her fateful encounter with an iceburg. Not to mention (but I am) the Lusitania was sunk just off of Kinsale and in Cobh they have made a memorial of it.
We went through the Queenstown Story. This is the Heritage museum that gives you a wealth of information regarding this town's history and the history of the Great Potato Famine and emigration. Queenstown was the name of Cobh during the British occupation and the Irish decided to return it to it's proper name after independence from Britain. Very informative, extremely sobering, definitely a worthwhile stop.
Then Eli started rousing from his nap (he always seems to take one when we put the car into drive) and we headed 5 minutes north to Fota. Fota is an incredible, made for kids and parents safari wildlife park. I have never been to such a cool park. You can pratically touch the giraffes, monkeys, and though there's certainly no touching the cheetahs, they get very close and it is SO cool. Halfway through the park there's a fantastic play area and kid friendly cafeteria. Huge lake with tons of cool ducks and duck food to buy for 50 cents so you and your little one can feed them. Fota is a must for anyone traveling with children. Eli had a blast!
My favorite scene was right after Eli watched the monkeys jumping from tree to tree directly over his head (oh yeah, it's that cool), he began climbing the tree and insisted he be allowed up with the monkeys. Clearly they wanted to play with him!
Just another day in Ireland. Tonight I am going to try to make it into the pubs to listen to some traditional Irish music. Believe it or not this has turned out to be the last thing I really haven't done. Traveling with a toddler is exhausting and I'm lucky to be awake at 10PM.
Tomorrow we drive back to Dublin and then fly home on the 15th. Sigh, maybe we'll do three weeks next time. But a delightful 2 weeks it has been.
The pic is Eli stopping to applaud his ascent to the top of the playground equipment.
Sounds traveliciously wonderful! Prayers for an easy drive back to Dublin and an uneventful flight home.
ReplyDeleteSo let me get this straight... you have face-to-face encounters with giraffes and cheetah and monkeys swinging overhead--and we get a picture of Eli on some playground equipment. Executed like a true mother. ;-)
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