Back to the in-laws!

Fortunately, I like them enough to endure a 4-hour coach ride. I try really hard not to think that in that same amount of time we would be flying down the east coast of the US towards DC, because that just gets me all depressed. Oh, how far is Cork from Dublin? 150 miles. Usually we get the train (which is 3 hours), but the husband convinced me that we'd save TONS of money by taking the coach. The last time we took it the cost was 15 euro return for each of us. This time it was 22 euro return. The husband then makes the mistake of saying, 'We should have just taken the late train, it was only a tenner more!' What now?? In fairness to him, he didn't know the price of the coach had gone up 7 ridiculous euro.

Being that I'm an American and all, coach trips mean crazy people on the Greyhound traveling to no where in particular. I have to say the crowd who uses the bus in Ireland is a lot less on the crazy side. Maybe the distances are just the right length before the crazies come to the surface. In fact, guess who was the crazy person on our coach home? That's right, this girl. You try being stuck on a coach bus with your underwire, having broken through it's fabric home now jabbing into your right breast, and tell me you don't turn into a crazy lunatic. Thankfully this happened on the first half of the trip, so I could take care of it once we got to the rest stop.

Happily, the weather cooperated this weekend and it was all this all the time:

We were going to go into Cork city on Saturday, but ended up going to Fort Camden. Pretty much every time we visit the in-laws we walk up to the fort. This is what happens when your husband is a military geek. It's closed to the public, so this is all we have been able to see of the fort:

Well, until now!! There is a movement to rescue Fort Camden and open the whole thing to the public. I sacrificed my day in Cork which would have included shopping and yummy scones, so Wes could finally see inside of the fort. See, it's not always all about me all of the time. Just most of the time. There were two rooms that were completely redone. Once housed a little military museum and the other one had some awesome photos of the fort taken by local photographers that were available to purchase. We wandered down a ways more and this volunteer told us to come in through the barriers to see a couple of the other rooms. Cool!

One of the billets, looking out towards Spike Island and Cobh

Part of the kitchen. The hook was for hanging meat.

The showers. The area I was standing in was where the baths were located.

You can see the level of repairs that need to be done.

As with most forts, the coolest parts are underground and these weren't open to the public just yet. There is a magnificent circular granite staircase that the professionals were able to photograph. 

We walked up to the square, passing where one if the guns had been mounted:

Then we watched as a storm hit Cobh, then skirted past us, hitting Fort Carlisle:

And of course we had to enjoy the beautiful views of Cobh and Spike Island, just after the rain had passed:

We were told that part of the big plan would be to have a ferry from Crosshaven to Spike Island (which they are also opening to the public). This would be really cool! Apparently, there used to be ferries going all over Cork Harbour and they're trying to restart them as a way of cutting down on road congestion. It's a lofty plan for Ireland and it will be interesting to see if it ever comes about.