Blogs from Waterford, County Waterford, Ireland, Europe

After another day full of train travel, this time adding another train connection at the train station across town from Dublin station. Riding right along the water gives you a striking first impression. Waterford is one beautiful city. Beautiful historic warehouses, that have since been turned into shops, line the water and are only blocks away from the pedestrian shopping center. One of those beautiful buildings was our hotel. Granville Hotel used to be the mansion of a wealthy Irish merchant family whose son later designed the modern Irish flag. We arrived, late in the evening, only to find out that where had been a mistake in our reservation. They thought that there was only 2 of us when we actually numbered 3. To correct their mistake we were given one of the penthouse suite that ... read more

Finally at a B&B with good internet AND hot showers! I have posted some pictures from the past few days! Anyway, today was not a good day. As my loving boyfriend would say, "morale is low, press on." Driving around Ireland is stressful, to say the least. First, there is being comfortable with driving on the wrong side of the road. The driving part isn't the problem - the turning part is. It's challenging to make narrow left hand turns, and wide right hand turns. Throw in the fact that we spent 90% of the day lost, and the necessity of finding gas stations to ask for directions....not a good day. However, there were a few highlights - Powerscourt Gardens in Eniskerry (uploaded some pictures) - Waterford...home of Waterford Crystal I am sad that we missed ... read more

Friday 4 September We headed off this morning towards Blarney, gearing up to kiss the stone. The castle is really lovely and relaxing. A peaceful stop, but then again, we had just beaten bus loads of tourists. The climb up the tower is through a quite narrow spiral staircase. There were tiney rooms coming off the staircase. Certainly a modest castle! When we reached the top, there was only a very small line up. The story is that a prince saved a drowning witch from a river and she returned the favour by telling him there was a magic rock at his castle. One that would give a person the eloquence of speech. Hoping it works. A man helps you to lie on your back, and you reach over your head to hold onto two steel ... read more

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 ... read more

Laurie was in charge of travel arrangements. Axel was in charge of lodging, food and proposing a touring itinerary. You’d think we’ve done this before… The Emerald Isle came into view in the early dawn of the 16th in that last 20 minutes of grogginess before touchdown. The flight was completely uneventful and the landing smooth as silk in the still morning air. While we had prepared ourselves mentally for the fact that the weather this time of year would be less than ideal we have thus far been pleasantly surprised by the lack of precipitation and the amount of sunshine…famous last words. The plan is to spend two nights in five separate locations around the southern rim of the island, western shore and Dublin. On this our first day, the basic intention was to get ... read more