Waterford

     After a heavy rain experience and night in Cork, we moved on to Waterford. Waterford is a port city on the southeast coast of Ireland. It has a long history and has been a populous and successful city for a long time. Viking raiders established a settlement near here in 853. It lasted 50 years before the Irish drove them out, but then the Vikings came back again twelve years later. Since that time, Waterford has had lots of warring and prosperous times. It was obvious to us that the Vikings had been in Waterford as remnants from that period still remain.

   Waterford had a good mix of stately older buildings, newer buildings, and some very creative and colorful buildings.

     Vicky and I like all kinds of food from all over the world. But in Ireland, we tried to always eat Irish food. In many cities such as Cork and Waterford, it was much more of a challenge to find the true Irish food. We didn't find any place in Cork and in Waterford, well, you can see below what it was like.

   We saw lots of touristy and entertaining places in Waterford including the statues below.

     It rained most of our first day in Waterford but in the morning, the sun was shining brightly. You can see the city’s clock tower below.

House of Waterford Chrystal

     One of the highlights of visiting Waterford was our tour of the House of Waterford, the home of Waterford Chrystal. We took a one-hour tour of their factory which was very interesting. George Penrose and his nephew William started their glass factory in Waterford in 1783. The company was closed in 1851 but later reopened after World War II. It's had its ups and downs since then but today, it seems to be doing well.

     The factory is a real factory with lots of space, machinery, and people performing many delicate tasks. I took a lot of photos but I'll just include this one post of the factory and workers, followed by a glassworks post.

     In the first photo, wood molds are made for some creations, such as an American football helmut which you can see in the upper right.

Many creations do still require glass blowing and we saw several people doing this. They looked very skilled and competent.

     A lot of space was hardly occupied so I'm not sure what types of work are done there but it's big spaces.

     Many people were doing what appeared to be highly intricate work.

     Our tour guide told us that Waterford has a five-year apprenticeship program. You can see one of their apprentices in the next photo.

     The last photo is some work on a Blackwater tumbler. We purchased two of these.

Waterford Chrystal

     I took quite a few pictures of finished Waterford Chrystal. I'll just show a sampling in this post.

     The first is a clock that's in the factory entrance way. It's on display for all to see. It's called the William Maddock Clock. He was a watch and clock maker in Waterford in the late 1700's. It is really pretty fabulous.

     The guitar here is not completed yet but it's close to being finished and I found it impressive. I do wonder how it would sound. They had other musical instruments.

     We purchased two Blackwater Tumblers. To give you an idea about prices, one tumbler was about $109. US

We are enjoying our holiday cocktails in our souvenir Waterford Chrystal tumblers.

Food Photos

     I didn't always remember to take photos of our meals, but I took more than I've posted so here's a few more. We really liked the food in Ireland. Zero complaints except perhaps that they served us too much food.

     This first photo was at Harry's on the River in the Absolute Hotel. We ate overlooking the River Shannon. Vicky started with a gin and tonic and Atlantic Seafood Chowder. Her main course was Beef Bourganon with mashed potatoes and carrots. I had a Guinness with a Feta Cheese salad. My main course was salmon with potatoes and broccoli. We both would have been content with just our starter dishes pictured here.

     Next was my Eggs Benedict at the Sneem Hotel. I ordered it because I thought it was the least amount of food compared to everything else on the menu. It was delicious but there were two layers of bacon between the eggs and the toast. 

     We ate lunch at the Marina Inn in Dingle. It was 52 degrees, overcast, and breezy at that time. We both had seafood chowder, bread, and coffee. The chowder was just seafood and broth, no potatoes, carrots, or other veggies. It was just the meal that we needed at the time.

     I know that I've mentioned Guinness quite often. It was excellent but I didn't limit myself to it. I had some Murphy's, Beamish Irish Stout, Lamps, and others. They were all very good, rich, creamy, and delicious. In the case of Vicky, she was having a Bailey's Irish Cream.

     The next two photos are from breakfast at The Dean hotel in Cork. I want to emphasize just how much bacon we had on this trip, and we had it as often as three times a day. Vicky had waffles infused with maple and then what, maybe deep fried. They were delicious but notice how much bacon she was served with her waffles.

     One more time, I had Eggs Benedict. And one more time, I had two layers of bacon between the eggs and toast. The good news, of course, is that I love bacon!

   We didn't have dessert very often as we were usually too full. But on the occasion of dinner at the Blarney Castle Hotel bar, we did have dessert. It was a baked apple tart with creamy custard sauce, whipped cream and strawberries. Vicky also insisted on some Bailey's Irish Cream to wash it down.

Postscript. I lost one pound on this trip. I attribute that to walking about 15,000 to 19,000 steps a day. We worked hard at working off all the food that we ate.

Vicky said she had nothing to report.

Wicklow Mountains National Park

     Wicklow Mountains National Park was our last major stop before returning to Dublin. The park is below Dublin about ten miles. The park was officially opened in 1991 and is 51,000 acres. It has some monastic, mining, and military history but it's mostly the beautiful Wicklow Mountains. It has many hiking trails, two large lakes that we saw, and a wide variety of habitats, plants, and animals.

     We started at the Glendalough Centre which features a collection of early medieval monastic structures, an education center on the miner's road by the upper lake, and remnants of a mining village. For us, it was a nice, quiet and peaceful walk in the woods and a nice way to end our trip to Ireland.

     As it had been raining, there was water falling off the hillsides and water standing in the woods.

     At the upper lake, we got to see a little wildlife in the form of ducks. It was a beautiful area.

     We saw many different stones circles in Ireland. At this park, we saw a circle surrounded by a stone wall. I wasn't sure about the significance, but Vicky made her own determination as to its function. She was one with the universe....

     And the water just kept falling off the mountain sides.

Cathair Mhainistreach Monastic City

     We are still in Wicklow Mountains National Park and very near the Glendalough Centre. This medieval monastic city was one of the highlights of the park and this area of the park. It was evidently a place of pilgrimage since the 6th century when St. Kevin lived here as a hermit. He attracted like followers and they established a monastery. It seems that there are both many stories and many myths concerning this place but it was definitely a real place.

     It seemed odd to me that a place only about ten miles south of Dublin was chosen as a place to live by a hermit, but that long ago and as rugged as the mountains are, I suppose it made good sense. It was a great place to visit and we had the whole place almost entirely to ourselves.

     You can see from the first two photos just where the monastic city is located.

    A round tower was evidently a staple of the ancient monasteries. It served multiple purposes. It acted as a bell tower to call the monks to prayer. It had six floors to it with the upper floors having one window each and the top floor having four windows. Protection was perhaps its most important function, as in protection from the Vikings when they came calling. The tower is 100 feet tall. The door is 12 feet above the ground. Yes, that's a door, not a window. So, the monks entered the tower using a ladder which could then be pulled up and taken inside to prevent the enemy from entering. This round tower was probably built between the years 900 and 1200. You can see the door and a few people standing in front of it near the tower.

     This building was in great condition but there was no information about its function. The building is entirely made of stone.

     The cathedral was built between the 10th and 12th centuries. It was one of the largest known early Christian churches in Ireland. The church was dedicated to SS Peter and Paul, but ceased to be a cathedral in 1214. I was surprised by its size which made me wonder just how many hermit monks might have lived here, particularly since they were evidently self sufficient.

     We probably spent the most time here trying to read gravestones. Most were not legible from being so old and from the wear of years in a wet environment. It was a large cemetery that was scattered all around the grounds. Again, you can see the door to the round tower in this photo.

End of Ireland Trip

     I didn't get any sunset photos which is how I often end my travel trips. I should have ended the trip at the end of the Wicklow Mountains NP. At any rate, I decided to just add a few more photos from this trip to end it.

    Vicky and I have learned to take selfies, as the next generation seems to find them appealing. We have at least gotten better at it, so here's a few. You can probably guess where we were for most of them.

     Vicky took some videos of various musicians that we saw and heard. I didn't take any videos but here was the best group that we heard. This was in a pub in Ennis.

     I tried to take another iconic photo at Blarney Castle from a different rock formation, but it wasn't as good as the women that took our photo.

     We did enjoy time in the pubs and all the refreshments. This was back in Dublin. And we didn't always drink beer.

That’s it for Ireland. I highly recommend Ireland as a place to visit for pretty much everyone. I could have spent much more time in Ireland and would like to some day.