Waterford

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After the successful (besides the weather) trip to Kilkenny, we decided to spend the next Saturday in Waterford. Just like in Kilkenny, when we got off the bus in Waterford, we had no idea where to go. It didn’t take long to find the tourist office and get maps and advice for where to go in town. After leaving the tourist office, we took our time making our way across town to see Reginald’s Tower, a tower built in the 11th or 12th century to defend Waterford, one of the oldest cities in Ireland. After we got pictures of the building, we made our way to the well-known Waterford Crystal factory. It was a long walk there, but it was worth it. Although they weren’t doing tours of the factory that day, we did look around the shop. We took our time looking at all the sparkling dishes, ornaments, and chandeliers, amazed at the high prices on some of the items. We spent so long looking around the store, we were all starving by the time we left, so we decided to take the bus back into town. Once back in town, we found a pub that was serving lunch. After lunch, there was about an hour and a half until the next bus back to Carlow. We used that time to look around all the shops in town and get some ice cream before going back to the bus station.
We chose a good time to go to Waterford, because we found out less than a week after we went there that the crystal factory had shut down.

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