We had a late berthing time today, 11pm, so a lie in till 7:30 was in order ! Usually we are up at 6:30 to have brekky and get ready for the 8am shore excursion starts.

Our tour today was a scenic drive to Kinsale and free time in the town. Angela was a great host, whilst Dan “The Man” drove our 45 seat coach, with 18 guests, down some pretty narrow roads.

Kinsale is a pretty, small town unfortunately swamped by traffic and tourists. Norwegian Dawn with 2400 passengers was also moored up and a lot were in Kinsale ! Some of the shops were painted fairly lurid colours and the roads were narrow and twisty. It’s perfectly acceptable to drive on the pavement in an effort to get around parked cars. Coaches just stopped on the road to disgorge passengers as there are no car parks, or toilets..

However Kinsale does have one redeeming featuring, a wool store. We had googled this and made straight for Vivi Trading. Hazel wanted some Irish wool to knit an Aran sweater and found a suitable pattern and wool. This will make an excellent and memorable souvenir.

We had a roundabout drive back along some very narrow roads with views of the lush green countryside. Angela told a few jokes, sang us a song and gave us a blessing along the way, a multi faceted guide to be sure, to be sure.