A Slight Deviation From Plan

Dover, once we arrived there, looked just as we remembered it, except that the White Cliffs had a lot more greenery growing on them. Our tour bus guide from London had already remarked on that during the drive, telling us that it has been increasing over the past 15 years, ever since the opening of the Channel Tunnel. Those who wonder about things like this figure that it is because the smaller number of cars using the ferries have left the Dover air cleaner, so the chalk hills are more able to sustain the plants that take hold there.

It seems that ferry service between Dover and Calais might actually be even more reduced - or at least it is right now, and not because anyone wants it that way. Our drive to Dover took us about 3 hours (our last trip to Dover only took about 2 hours from Southampton, which is farther out than London!) because of issues on the French side that have most of the ferry service and the cargo train service from England disrupted to a huge degree. Cargo trucks and trailers can't get across because of blockades by ferry workers in Calais complaining about the current owner selling the ferries, and the Tunnel has a problem with migrants from eastern Europe and northern Africa wanting to get to England by any means possible, including sneaking into, under, and on top of trucks, trailers and even the Chunnel Eurostar passenger trains! The net effect of this is that the M20, the main motorway to the Channel Tunnel entrance and Dover, has been closed off more often than not, and has become a parking lot for trucks waiting to get across to Europe. Everybody is waiting for the French government to step up and do something about both issues, but nothing is happening so far except that everyone outside of France is getting really fed up with the French government. So right now there is no easy way to get from England to the Continent on wheels, and drivers have to take some inventive detours to get around the problem.

Since that was one issue we would avoid, we did finally manage to get to Dover and on board. The first person we saw as we boarded was Guiseppe, one of the section headwaiters in the Dining Room. So far it has been like old home week (as usual) with the crew, but we've seen surprisingly few regular guests. We already knew that Keith and Anne Marie would be on board, but we usually see more people we have cruised with before.

Sailaway was delayed a bit because of the traffic issue with later flights transferring in, but in the end we got everyone on board and left Dover while we were having dinner.

Our first port stop was supposed to be St. Peter Port, Guernsey, but we already knew that there was some windy and unsettled weather coming in from the Atlantic. The first night in the Channel was quite rocky-rolly, and when we got up in the morning (panicking because the alarm didn't go off and we would have only a half-hour before our tour) and looked out the window, all we could see was fog and rain and waves - and the ship moving. A quick glance at the TV showed that we had already passed Guernsey, and a few minutes later, Captain Vorland made an announcement to confirm not only that we had an unscheduled sea day, but also that we would not be going to Wateford on Monday, also because of the weather. But Crystal, being Crystal, had scrambled around and managed to get us into Cobh (pronounced Cove for those of you who don't know anyone named Siobhan) and arrange excursions into and around Cork.

Now, finally, we'll get to some photos! We chose the option of going to Midleton and to the Jameson's Whiskey Distillery.  Our tour was over an hour long and took us through both the history of Jameson's (established by John Jameson in Dublin in 1760) and the particular whiskey-making process that they use. At the end there was, of course, a whiskey tasting. A few of us also volunteered to do a comparison tasting between Scotch (Johnny Walker Black), Bourbon (Jack Daniels) and Jameson's Original. Any guesses as to which was everyone's favourite???

One of the old malt grinding wheels

The Master Distiller's 'Cottage' - with 26 rooms!!

An old delivery truck

Jameson's triple distills its whiskey, which is why it tastes so much smoother than many others, and also why it is so different from Scotch (twice) and Bourbon (once). The main difference in taste from Scotch comes from the malt being dried over a clean fire that doesn't impart any flavour or aroma into the grain, unlike Scotch where the malt is dried over peat fires. The triple distilling process is also very interesting. It is literally that the alcohol fumes created when the malt and water are mixed with yeast and heated that move from the still into a condenser and are turned back into a liquid state with a fairly high alcohol percentage. This liquid is heated again, creating an even higher proof alcohol, and then for a third time, where the product is about 160 proof (80% alcohol) and much 

purer. It is then placed into casks and aged before being mixed with ultra-pure water to bring the alcohol content to a level fit for consumption.

The cooper's room, where barrels would be
made from American Oak. Spanish casks are
also used after they've held sherry.

A look at the barrel aging process as the years go by. The
final concentration has a very high alcohol content
and needs to be cut with demineralized water.

No, there are no worms in this tub! It is actually the
old condenser, where the alcohol vapour was sent through
a large number of tubes to cool down. The tubes
apparently look like big worms.

Larry at the Distiller's Academy

The comparative whiskey tasting. Jameson's
remains Monica's favourite

Larry found a really, really big bottle of Jameson's

Even though the distillery is in the centre of Midleton, we didn't have enough time to take a walk around before heading back to the ship. Even though it was a replacement stop, Daniel and the Shorex team did a really good job of making alternate arrangements for us, and everyone we talked to had had a great day.