Last Stop in Ireland: Waterford

As our vacation in Ireland drew to a close, we made one last day trip out of Dublin to the southeast coast of Ireland to visit Waterford.  It was only about a 90 minutes drive from our "home" in Dublin.  It was rainy dreary day (again) in Dublin, but we as drove south the weather improved substantially and it was very nice by the time we reached Waterford.

We walked through the town - very quaint village towards the Waterford Crystal factory.  We stopped along the way at a sweets shop.  The woman there looked at me and said that I must have the "famine gene" - as I obviously liked my potatoes!  It was pretty funny (but I knew she was right!)

The Waterford Crystal factory closed up shop a few years ago.  It was then purchased by some American investors who moved the primary factory operations to eastern Europe and re-opened a "prestige" pieces factory in Waterford, employing the very best craftsman.  Here they do tours and they make the one-of-a-kind pieces, especially trophies for sports events.  They always make two - sending one to the sporting event and keeping a copy, just in case.  The copies are kept only for a little while and then distroyed.

We wandered the amazing showroom until it was time for our tour.

The tour group was quite small, thankfully, which made the tour very good.  We learned about how the glass is blown, molded and cooled....

and then it is marked with magic markers! and cut by hand (absolutely amazing - I had assumed that by now it was mostly computer driven). 

They also make pieces that are made from solid glass blocks - not blown and therefore not hollow.

Although I had promised myself that I wouldn't do it, I couldn't help but buy a small piece of Waterford at the end of the tour.  It is just very small vase but it will be a very nice memento of this trip.

After the crystal factory tour, we went to the TI (Tourist Information center) and took the historic walking tour of Waterford.  It was recommended by our guide book (I swear by Rick Steve's guidebooks) and did not disappoint.  It was about an hour of fascinating commentary. 

We went into a building that was originally the Quaker Meeting House.  They were sent to Ireland from England in hopes that they would get the "right" religion, but it didn't work.   I had never thought about there being Quaker's in Ireland.  We also saw two cathedrals designed by the same architect: one was catholic and one was protestant.  He had 22 children.  The guide descsried him as an OSIP (over sexed Irish protestant).

We had a wonderful lunch at the "carvery" in the Granville Hotel on the waterfront and then headed out of town towards home.  Along the way we stopped in New Ross at the Dunbrody Famine Ship.   This was a recreation of one of the ships that brought thousands of Irish to New York following the potatoe famine.  The conditions on the ship were appalling but obviously the conditions in Ireland at the time were even worse.

The tour was quite good and included live actors who talked about what life was like on the ship.

We headed up the coast for home and packing, feeling that we had seen a great deal of Ireland and learned quite a bit about its people and its long (bloody) history.

Now we are off to three weeks in England!