Day 4 in Ireland and we were up quite early as the sun woke us up at the farmhouse at 5:30 am. It drives me batty how it is daylight until 11 pm at night and then the sun is up so early. Kathleen, our host, had a nice breakfast laid out for us and we packed up our stuff for the day out sightseeing. We were the last people to be picked up from the farmhouses, so we didn't see the bus until 9:45 am. Off we went to Waterford.
Greg took a picture of the old boats in the harbor at Waterford as we came into town. It was another beautiful day weatherwise and the scenery was quite beautiful. As we were driving around the town, Jim was giving us a history lesson. The old stone walls that I took a picture of were some of the remaining wall fragments of the walls built by the Vikings in 1000 A.D. The Vikings were in Ireland for 100 years.
We arrived at the Waterford Factory and our first stop was the shop where you could buy all kinds of stuff. They also had displays on the various Waterford trophys that had been given out at famous golf tournaments. This was only a short stop before our tour of the factory.
We broke up into small groups for the tour. It was a terrific tour as we were very up close and personal with the workers. We got to see the entire process from the glass being blown to the finishing work and cutting done on the crystal. We learned that for every crystal trophy made for tournaments (tennis, golf, racing, etc.), they make 3 of them. One is the winner's trophy, one is a replacement in case something happens, and one is to keep at the factory for their showroom/museum.
From start to finish, Waterford does a good job of explaining the entire process. Even at the very end of the tour as we were headed out the door, there was one last demonstration by master cutters as to the cutting process. The apprenticeship to be at this level is very long.
As you can see, the kids liked getting to touch the trophys that were made at Waterford. Once our tour was complete, we walked over to the store for a quick run through again, but I didn't buy anything. I couldn't be bothered with shipping something back or carrying crystal throughout the rest of the trip. We did learn all about the logo for Waterford crystal - the seahorse.
Our next stop was the town of Waterford where we would have lunch and a short amount of time for shopping. Because we wanted to spend time walking around the town, we had a quick lunch at McDonalds. We visited a bookstore and a music store (where I bought my brother an Irish whistle in the key of C). Larry and Greg were still looking for a hurling jersey. Time went by pretty quickly and soon we were off to New Ross to visit the Dunbrody. More on that later.
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