The Amsterdam Visits Bantry.

We noticed the massive cruiser: Amsterdam berthed in Bantry harbour yesterday morning.  The launches brought passengers into town.  Some of the tourists carried umbrellas and wore raincoats and held cameras and took photos and went a for a pint of the "black stuff" or a "nice cup of tea".  Others boarded coaches and went on day trips to Beara and no doubt Killarney.  

My mother use to tell me about back in the fifties when the American and British Atlantic liners use to berth in Bantry Bay.  Back in the time when me mum met my dad ("In Baghdad where my mother met my dad") the tourists would flock to see Cork and Kerry.  Then along came the jet planes and they flew into Shannon. 

However or but.  Since Bantry Harbour Commissioners built the new jetty and the ships have returned.  It's just a shame West Cork or Bantry doesn't have an Eden Project.  

Something for the tourists to visit even when its raining!  Perhaps the Euro Millions could donate 36 million for a worthwhile project.  Well they did in Cornwall.  Changing a China clay quarry into a tourist attraction.

The passengers on the Amsterdam have almost completed an 114 cruise voyage leaving Fort Lauredale in Florida and then onto: Panama, Peru, Chile, Pitcairn Island, French Polynesia, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, India ("flipping heck"), Oman, Jordan, Suez Canal, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Scotland, Belfast, Dublin, Cobh and Bantry by the sea.  Then back to Florida.

Here she goes on her way to Florida.  Here's a song for the passengers to use enjoy their supper and voyage and thanks for passing where we live.









We watch that cruise ship programme on Friday nights starring Jane McDonald.  I love her self deprecating northern humour and it was wonderful seeing them sail along the river Duoro in Portugal recently.

Have you ever been on a cruise?  The ship not a missile!  I like to jump on a plane and get to my destination.  Aren't flights boring?  

I usually start imagining one of the air hostesses turning into Britney Spears and singing "Toxic".  The missus reads a book or watches a filum (eighteen years in Ireland) and I look at my watch every five minutes.