Like living life to the limit? Just how much can you cram into just one day? We sent two gal pals along to Ireland’s southern city to find out
The adventurers:
STEPHANIE and ALEX (both 25, both sales managers and both living in Lichfield) met in 2006 and soon realised that their shared passion for doing everything to excess made them perfect travel buddies. Their first trip away together was to Newquay, where they saw James Morrison live at the Eden Project, ate at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen and basically spent more money over 48 hours than they should’ve done all month! They’re adept at talking themselves into spontaneous adventures, like one night in the summer when they went out for dinner, got the urge to get away and five hours later were in Alicante! They’re not sure which one is the bad influence – maybe they’re just a lethal combination! We sent them to have some fun in Cork…
day 1 |
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| 9:00pm Dinner After checking in to our hotel, we headed to J acobs, an award-winning restaurant with fantastic modern European food, an impressive wine list and attentive staff, who wrote “Welcome to Cork” on m y tiramisu plate – a message in chocolate is definitely the best kind! Jacobs is housed in former Turkish baths, so the setting is unusual and all the artwork on displa y is for sale, so if you get carried away you may end up taking one home – apparently this happens quite regularly when the drink is flowing! 30A South Mall, tel: +353 (0)21 425 1530, www.jacobsonthemall.com |
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| 10:00am The Cork Butter Museum Certainly the most specific museum we’ve ever been to(!). It’ll only take you about half an hou r, but their enthusiasm for everything butter is infectious and you do leave with a much deeper appreciation for the stuff. We loved the butter museum; it was utterly charming from start to finish. Besides, if it wasn’t for our visit we’d never have started talking in such detail about butter and I’d never have found out that Alex has actually milked a cow on more than one occasion (what?!) and, also, that she would eat a knob of butter for £20! Good to know… O’Connell Square, www.corkbutter.museum |
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| 11:00am St Anne’s Church If you’ve got a head for heights and €6 to spare, you can climb the 36m staircase to the top of the tower at the Church of St Anne Shandon for a fantastic view of the city. You can also try your hands at “campanology” and ring the church bells but, unfortunately, we weren’t able to do this because it was a Sunday. Church Street, tel: +353 (0)21 450 5906, www.shandonbells.org |
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| 11:30pm Crane Lane Theatre Bar On the restaurant’s recommendation, we went to the Crane Lane Theatre Bar, a fantastic venue for live music. It was absolutely packed, so we squeezed in to the beer garden. There’s no shortage of drinking places in Cork: traditional pubs, fashionable wine bars and unique and unexpected venues sit alongside each other. Cork is fairly compact, so you can walk around and see w hat you stumble across. In our experience, you’ll find a friendly welcome and a superb pint of Guinness wherever you end up! Pembroke Street, tel: +353 (0)21 427 8487, www.cranelanetheatre.com |
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day 2 |
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| 9:30am The Cork City Bus Tour After enjoying Jacuzzis in our respective rooms (we both agree this is the best start to an y day – must get one at home!) and breakfast in the Gr esham, we headed off for our day of sights eeing. It’s such a cliché, but you just have to do a bus tou r – there’s no better (or cheaper) way to get your bearings, and the buses stop at most of the places a tour ist would want to visit anyway. Tel: +353 (0)21 430 9090 |
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| 11:30am The Four Liars Bistro If you’ve got a head for heights and €6 to spare, you can climb the 36m staircase to the top of the tower at the Church of St Anne Shandon for a fantastic view of the city. You can also try your hands at “campanology” and ring the church bells but, unfortunately, we weren’t able to do this because it was a Sunday. Church Street, tel: +353 (0)21 450 5906, www.shandonbells.org |
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| 2:30pm Lunch at Green’s After a drink in the Met Bar at our hotel, it was time for a bite to eat. Lunch at Greenes, in Hotel Issacs, was great – the food is traditional, using local produce, but what’s really different is that it has its own natural waterfall. Our table overlooked the courtyard and we kept forgetting to talk because we were just staring at it! After lunch we sat outside (thankfully they have a heated patio area) with a glass of wine and imagined how lovely it must be at night when they light up the waterfall. 48 MacCurtain Street, www.isaacscork.com |
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| 4:00pm St Patrick’s Street St Patrick’s Street is the main shopping area in Cork. It’s filled with the usual high street stores and famous Irish stores, as well as street stalls offering hot drinks, crêpes, fudge and various other calorific treats. We were delighted to find that everything was going to be open until 6pm or even 6.30pm. Very sensible for a Sunday – gives you more time to sleep in, have a lazy lunch and still mooch round the shops! |
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| 5:00pm Le Château Pub After an hour of looking at clothes that we could n’t afford, we decided we hadn’t quite eaten or dr unk enough(!), so we crossed over to Le Château Pu b, famous for being one of the first pubs in Cork. It’s a “proper” pub with a great atmosphere and loads of little alco ves. Le Château, 93 St Patrick Street, tel: +353 (0)21 427 0370 |
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| 6:30pm The Pullman Lounge Unlike most airport hotels, this place makes you pray for a flight delay! It’s not cheap (€25 for 3 hours), but it’s amazing. Included in the price are massage lounger s, WiFi, magazines, snacks, soft drinks and a shuttle to the airport when you finally force your relaxed muscles to function and get out of the seat. The whole e xperience was surreal: drinking Pinot, eating cheese and getting a massage, all while watching Grease 2 with my best fr iend. I used the Wifito check if we could change our fl ight back to Monday – alas, no such luck! I wouldn’t have thought of choosing Cork for a weekend break, but after 24 hour s there, not only are we planning to go back, we’re recommending it to everyone we know! www.corkinternationalairporthotel.com |
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The hotel
The Gresham Metropole is brilliantly located in the heart of the city, and is an ideal base for walking to restaurants, shops… and of course, pubs!
It has recently been refurbished and this was most obvious in the bedrooms. We were lucky enough to be treated to a suite each and they couldn’t have been more different. Suite 406 (too new to be named) was polished and contemporary, boasting a Jacuzzi bath and showerhead the size of a dinner plate, while the beautiful Jack Lynch Suite is classically styled with original period detail and a bed big enough for five. Gorgeous.
The staff were so friendly and helpful and, like everyone in Cork, made us feel welcome and at home. Oh, and on Sundays, they serve breakfast until noon – very civilised!
Our writers stayed in the four-star Hotel Gresham Metropole. It’s available to book from £104 per night per room on a bed & breakfast basis (based on two sharing), including use of the indoor pool, sauna, solarium and gym. To book, visit www.bmibaby.com, where you can search for hotels and apartments in all bmibaby destinations. Powered by online hotel booking speciali, Hotelopia.
GETTING THERE
bmibaby flies to Cork from Birmingham and Manchester from just £18.99 one-way, incl taxes. To book, log on to www.bmibaby.com
GOT A PASSPORT AND A DIGITAL CAMERA?
Want to be in an upcoming issue of yeahbaby? We’re looking for two people to take to the streets of a bmibaby destination for 24 hours – if you’re handy with a camera and happy to tell our readers what they should see and do, we want to hear from you!
ENTER NOW!
Email bmibaby.ed@ink-publishing.com with a photo of you and your travel buddy, and tell us where you live and why you’d like to be our next guest writer. Winners will receive return flights for two from your nearest bmibaby UK hub to one of our destinations (to be decided), one night’s accommodationa and £100 towards transfers, meals, etc. Good luck!
