Blogs from Waterford, County Waterford, Ireland, Europe - page 3

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 ... read more

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

Geo: 52.2568, -7.1292Blarney to WaterfordJust after passing through the second largest city in Ireland, Cork, Dylan collected the Limericks that people had written. He chose 4 people to be judges. They were to score the Limericks based on the amount of clapping and laughing the rest of did when he read the Limericks. The author of each Limerick wound not be announced. Some of the ones that he read were bad and not even in the pattern of a Limerick. One or two weren't bad, but after mine was read, it got a good response from the rest of the tourists. After the tabulations, I ended up in 1st place by 2 points. As a prize, I get a free drink at dinner. The following is my winning:There once was a girl from the US of ... read more

Geo: 52.2568, -7.1292Waterford, County Waterford, Republic of IrelandWe arrived at the Waterford Crystal Factory at 3:15 p.m. The original factory opened in 1783 and closed in 1851, but reopened in 1947. Then the factory of 3,000+ workers and showroom closed 18 months ago when the company moved to somewhere in the Continental Europe due to cheaper business prices. This new place that we were visiting just opened a month ago. The city hopes to keep the tourists coming to Waterford, so had worked out with the Waterford Crystal Factory to set up this new place. It was a wonderful hour excursion! It had a large showroom where you could purchase the items on display. Even though they had some nice things, I had gotten what I wanted back in Blarney at a shop's Waterford Crystal Department. ... read more