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Published: April 7th 2013
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It came so quickly, my last day with my family in Ireland. We started our day at 8am when we got in the car and headed down N24 to Waterford. About halfway there, we took a slight detour to Cashel. We visited the Rock of Cashel, also known as St. Patrick’s Rock. The reason it got its name is because the Castle was built on a huge rock by the town of Cashel. There is a story that the devil was flying all around Ireland and took a bite out of a mountain a few miles from Cashel and dropped it where it lies today. On the tour of the Rock, I learned about all the buildings that are there: The Round Tower, the Cathedral, the Chapel, the Bishop’s living quarters, and the house of the choir. All these buildings were built when the property was given by the king of South Ireland to the church. The oldest standing building is the Round tower that was built in 1101, the same year the land switched hands. The newest building was the choir building where the 8 choir members practiced and lived. In the Chapel, there used to be beautiful paintings on
the ceiling that they are currently trying to uncover and selvage. The blue paint in these paintings was as valuable as gold when the chapel was made. The Cathedral was built between the Chapel and the Round tower and was built in the Gothic style with the arches coming to a point at the top. The last building is the bishop’s quarters which were added on to the Cathedral. After the Rock was abandoned for a few hundred years, the Quarter’s started crumbling and a lot of pieces fell down. Actually, a man shipped pieces from the building to Watertown, Wisconsin to build a church. Us Wisconsinites are just everywhere! Behind the Cathedral, there is a graveyard with Celtic Crosses everywhere. There is one cross that is actually in a Latin style instead of Celtic in the front of the buildings which is called St. Patrick’s Cross. The Latin style has two supports, one on each side. On this particular cross, one of the supports broke off. It was to honor the Saint because he once visited the Rock of Cashel when the kings of southern Ireland used the castle. He baptized the King and tried to introduce Christianity to
the people of Cashel. Behind the Cathedral, there used to be a high cross, but it was struck by lightning and you can still see the pieces on the ground from the top of the cross that no longer sits on top. After we left the castle, we walked down to a little woolen shop in Cashel. Everyone got their Irish wool!
We then jumped into the car and drove the rest of the way to Waterford. The weather was beautiful. I was actually warm all day without a million layers of clothing. The town is located right on the river and not very busy which was very nice and relaxing. The first place we visited was the House of Waterford Crystal. I have been looking forward to this the entire time I have been in Ireland. We got to walk through the working factory in Waterford. They use wooden molds when blowing the glass and after 6 uses they are replaced. Each and every piece is carefully sculpted by hand. The crystal must be cut and they use marks to help the cutters make a perfect piece. After all the cutting is done, the piece is placed into
chemicals to make the crystal shiny and clean. This was one of the most fascinating things I have ever seen. In the shop afterwards, Grandma bought a Vase. Mom and Aunt Christy bought Christmas ornaments. That was so typical for mom! I bought to wine glasses from the Aoife collection which is only made in the Waterford factory. I cannot wait to finish my Waterford Crystal collection!
After the factory, we were only interested in shopping around because it was the last chance for my family. We visited a bunch of gift shops and I picked up a few things for some friends. My brother bought some leather white shoes. He is such a character. Why would you buy those in Ireland? After shopping around for a while, we decided to go find somewhere to eat. This was the biggest challenge of the day. The first two places we went to were not serving food. We finally found a little place called “The Brasserie”. It wasn't exactly Irish food, but at that point we were just happy to have found food somewhere. After a nice filling meal, we headed back to Limerick. When we got home, I loaded up
all my stuff and said goodbye to everyone and my mom and brother drove me home. I am going to miss everyone over here a lot. I cannot wait to see them again! Only a few more adventures left before I have to go home to Wisconsin!
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