Cork, Ireland (Day Three)

Monday: Happy for a bit of a sleep-in before packing up, checking out and heading down to the Cork City Roasters for a morning coffee.
With the sun shining, I headed back to the Firkin Crane, only discover that when I went in, it was no longer open to the public as it was over Heritage weekend, but the elderly fellow who told me this showed me through anyway. Not a lot to it really, just the main performance studio, that is much like a playhouse in size with many rooms encircling this. So about fifteen minutes later I was heading across the road to the Cork Butter Museum.
Yep, butter isn’t all that interesting, but I was told that this is quite a major part of both Irish and Cork history so still checked it out. Discovering that stories of the butter roads and the fact that your milk could quite easily be taken by highwaymen on your way to the creamery was something that I certainly didn’t expect. Other than that it was pretty much the tale of Ireland’s dairy industry growing through Kerry Gold butter, it’s growth as a worldwide export and how that happened through Cork. At least it was only €3 to go through, but no samples, not that I really wanted one.

From here I headed onto the city centre ‘island’ to the southern channel near city hall. On the banks here is the harbour jet boat tour. Cork having the world’s second largest natural harbour (behind Sydney). The harbour itself also branches off to the large township of Cobh (pronounced cove), and as was recommended to me by the pair at St Fin Barrés, the harbour tour is a great way to see Cobh - I was up for the jet boat part more than the actual tour, but good hear someone confirm it as a worthwhile trip. Alas, the guy running the tour canned the morning’s two hour tour (I bet you were thinking ‘a three hour tour’ weren’t you...) as there were only three of us, and he needed (or wanted) four people as a minimum. I offered to pay an extra slot, but he wouldn’t go for it and wouldn't get the boat out.
Well, the nearby riverside café it was then to have a bit of a late breakfast and a look through the guidebook to work out where to go for the next two hours. While doing this and enjoying a waffle, large grey clouds appeared and proceeded to dump a load of rain. Glad I was inside.

Soon enough, the rain passed and the sun was back out so off I went to just follow the river towards the main shopping zone of the city centre. Some time hanging out in the sun in the centre of the main drag watching the Monday ‘crowds’ and enjoying the buskers tunes.
A bit more poking around and going through some different laneways to see what I could find, and after picking up some chocolate supplies from the English Market, I ended up in the Mutton Lane Inn (pictured right). A top little place, and I mean little. It was perfect to just while away the early afternoon with a final pint of Cork’s finest and a paper. Oh, and a fresh roast for a late lunch. Foine, foine, to be sure, to be sure... (okay, I couldn’t resist)
The clock rolled around soon enough and it was time to ‘walk the streets’ on my way to the bus station and the bus back to the airport.
See you later Ireland...