After a calm sea day crossing to the French coast, we anchored off the beautiful walled city of St Malo, and rode into the city in tender boats. This day we did not book an excursion and decided to explore St Malo on our own, which turned out to be a good choice. It was fun to go up on the city walls and walk around the perimeter of the old city, with views of the harbor, a beach area and inland. We found a very nice restaurant for lunch and then wandered at will through the narrow streets, in and out of churches, and around the harbor. St Malo is a delightful town and another on our list for a return visit some day.
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Our ship docked at Ringaskiddy, the deep water harbor town 11 miles to the southeast, that serves Cork and much of southern Ireland. This day we had booked "A Walk Through Cork" as our excursion, which started with a 45 minute bus ride to Cork city center where we met our guide for the walking tour. Cork is a city built between and across two branches of the River Lee, so there are lots of interesting streets along the river banks and pretty bridges across. We took in St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral, the Courthouse and many sites of Irish resistance and rebellion against British rule. The tour ended at a classic Irish pub with Guinness for all.
The Liverpool cruise port is part of the Liverpool Waterfront on the famous River Mersey estuary. We were able to walk off the ship, right onto the waterfront and into the city. Today we had not booked a tour through the cruise company and were excited to be meeting my brother Ric who had driven in from Manchester that morning to spend the day with us.
After meeting Ric at a coffee shop, we started our wander through Liverpool with a "History of Liverpool Walking Tour" that we booked through Tripadvisor. I would highly recommend this tour. In a little under two hours, the guide took us through over 300 years of the history of Liverpool, including the many technology breakthroughs developed for the docks, Liverpool's role in the slave trade and on to modern times. The guide was excellent.
Following the walking tour, we had lunch in a forgettable restaurant, then fully recharged we headed for some Beatles nostalgia - yes, we went to The Cavern Club! There we listened to some live music, drunk some beer, marveled at all the old posters and we even learned that Bruce Springsteen showed up there two nights running last year to play a late set following his concerts at Anfield Park.
With the day winding down, we walked back to the Waterfront for the obligatory photo with the Fab Four statues. Yes, we are tourists at heart! A big thank you to Ric for joining us here!
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