Day 15 Thursday 28th May 2009 Wexford-Cobh-Killarney

Day 15 Thursday 8th May 2009. Wexford-Cobh-Killarney.
We arose at 5:15am; breakfast at 6:00am and on the bus at 6:30am; we were to have caught the train at 6:48am but because a section of the track was under repair we had to catch the substitute bus to Rosslare to catch it. John persuaded the driver to bring his bus to the hotel for us which saved us a walk. Good work John! We departed Rosslare at 7:11 and arrived at Waterford at 8:23am. The train parks here until 9:35am. We were able to leave our luggage on the train. I went for a walk over a big bridge; a large sailing ship was moored beside a wharf. One of our members had walked to it and found out that it took on disabled people for an ocean sailing experience. It was due to sail later in the morning for America. At 9:35 we left on the next stage of our day long journey and headed for Limerick Junction. I had managed to acquire a map and a railway timetable and was able to see where we were going; I now new john was leading us one of his day tours but also ending at a new city for the night. Up until now we had been riding on suburban commuter trains. The farms in the country side were not as good as those we had seen in England. There were a lot of Friesian cows. The houses were more colourful than in England. At Limerick Junction we changed to a cross-country train travelling from Dublin to Cork; it was more swept up and faster. No power points or internet. We had a short while in Cork before catching the 1:00pm train for a twenty minute trip to Cobh. At Cobh we all went to a museum; the museums three main topics was the emigration of the Irish to America and Australia, the history of the Curnard luxury Liners as well as other shipping lines and the sinking of the Lusitania. The town was also the last port of call of the Titanic on her last fatal voyage. Cobh has had three name change over the years; a long time ago it became known as Cove, then when an English Queen first set foot in Ireland it was here so the town became Queenstown, eventually returning to its original name of Cobh. Between 1815 and 1970 over 3 million Irish emigrated from here. We had three hours to view the museum and see the town before catching the train at 4:30 to Mallow. The train stopped a Cork wherefrom it was only standing room only; for the 50km from Cork to Mallow it was nonstop. At Mallow we had to hurriedly climb stairs to get to our train which was waiting to take us to our final destination for the day, Killarney. On this train there was luggage all over the passageways and in front of the doors; the train was very very packed. We arrived at Killarney at 6:30pm. We had a long but interesting day.