Waterford - Day 1 - House of Waterford, Bishop’s Palace, Medieval Museum, Irish Museum of Time, Reginald’s Tower and Irish Silver Museum

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Freakin’ fire/smoke alarms! After our experience with the fire alarm at our Staycity apartment in Dublin on Saturday morning, this morning the smoke alarm in our room shattered the peace at 6.00am!! Much worse. At least on Saturday we were already up and about. This morning, we had been hoping for another hour and a half of sleep! Fortunately, we had a stool in our room that gave Bernie just enough reach to rip the bloody thing off the ceiling and take the batteries out. Thank goodness it wasn’t hardwired. We were sure it was a false alarm, but I did open the door and sniff for smoke before trying to go back to sleep. Damned flat batteries.

When the alarm went off, we were fast asleep again so … two rude awakenings this morning. We showered in our first electric shower for the holiday. The electric showers that they have over here are so … pathetic. Give me a shower connected to mains pressure any day. I don’t know why electric showers are so popular over here? Still, it wasn’t a shower over bath with a shower curtain like yesterday so that’s a plus. It never ceases to amaze me how many different types of showers they have in the UK and Ireland.

Oh, dear, we were not having a good morning this morning. Bernie’s nose started to bleed in the shower, so we had to try to mop that up without soiling the white towels, the natural enemy of the blood nose. To be on the safe side we headed down to the dining room for breakfast with a wad of tissue rammed up Bernie’s right nostril. We suspect that the bug Bernie is recovering from has left his sinuses a bit fragile? Oh, and to top everything off, the weather has turned nasty. After enjoying glorious spring weather since our arrival, today the weather is more like we anticipated for Ireland, cool and wet.

Breakfast was very average. A selection of cereal and then choice of full Irish breakfast, poached eggs on toast, scrambled eggs on toast or baked beans on toast or, of course, just toast. Not a piece of fruit in sight and the orange juice was not real juice just that horrible orange juice drink stuff. I had a couple of Weetabix and two slices of toast while Bernie had some muesli and a fried egg on toast.

After this morning’s dramas we missed our agreed 9.00am departure time but managed to be ready to head into Waterford with Cathy and Steve shortly after. We set the SatNavs for the Bolton Street Car Park and headed into the city. After paying for six hours of parking, our first stop was at the House of Waterford where they make the world-famous Waterford crystal.

We had decided not to worry about pre-booking for a tour of the factory this morning and that proved to be the right call. Arriving at about 9.30am we were able to be added onto the next tour at 9.50am. While we waited, we browsed the retail area where they have hundreds of crystal items – functional and decorative - on display. There really isn’t much that hasn’t been recreated in crystal with everything from glasses, decanters, vases and trophies to Christmas decorations, trains, musical instruments and even football helmets.

Unfortunately, when our tour commenced, we had to go back out into the rain to dash across from the retail shop to the factory. Once in the factory foyer our tour guide, Bernie, introduced herself and provided us with a quick history of Waterford Crystal. Waterford Crystal was first established in 1783 by George and William Penrose who ran the factory for 70 years before being forced to close in 1853. It was almost a century before the business resumed in 1947 when glassmaker Kael Bacik hired fellow Czech, Miroslav Havel, as Chief Designer for his fledgling glassmaking operation in Ireland. The new company created its iconic Lismore design in 1952 – the world’s bestselling crystal pattern.

Following this introduction our tour of the factory floor commenced. Waterford’s website summarizes the entire tour, so I am shamelessly copying it and pasting it here.

The first stop on the tour is the mould room where you witness the ancient art of mould making. Master Blowers shape the molten crystal flawlessly with the use of these wooden moulds and hand tools - a technique that has remained unchanged throughout the centuries.

As you move through to the blowing platform, this is where the magic truly begins, and crystal shapes start to form. Using the moulds, our skilled Master Blowers transform glowing balls of crystal into majestic shapes before placing them through the 1400-degree furnace.

Our crystal is carefully inspected at each stage of production to ensure each piece meets our exacting standards. With six stringent inspection areas, only pieces that satisfy these standards make it to the next stage of production. Items that do not pass our quality standards are crushed and melted along with our other crystal making ingredients

The next part of your journey is the marking department. Here the crystal is marked with a temporary geometric grid that assists the Master Cutter as they cut the pattern onto the crystal. Each brilliant crystal piece is cut strictly from memory, with these lines simply acting as a guideline for precision and accuracy

In the cutting department you will see our Master Cutters at work, utilizing the masterful skills they learnt during an eight-year apprenticeship. Each pattern, no matter how detailed, must be learned and memorized by the cutter during his training years. The Master Cutter relies on their skill and dexterity to cut patterns, applying the exact pressure to make the cut without damaging the integrity of the vessel.

In the next stage of our tour the sculpting department, inspirational pieces of crystal created by our Master sculptors start out as solid blocks of crystal. Experience how delicately our Master Craftsmen adorn the intricate detail onto the crystal as they transform robust blocks of crystal into elegant shapes and figures with their sculpting wheels.

Finally, you will have the chance to see Master Engravers at work. Using copper wheels, these skilled artisans patiently engrave intricate designs onto trophies and limited-edition pieces, a painstaking process that can take days to complete depending on the size and complexity of the design. The type of copper wheel engraving used at Waterford Crystal is called Intaglio, which means ‘reverse’. The deeper the engraving on the crystal, the more prominent and pronounced the detail.

And … back to the shop where we resisted the temptation to shell out the big $$ for Wedgewood Crystal items. I admit to being tempted to purchase a small piece. I did think about a small shamrock Christmas ornament but resisted shelling out $122.00 for a Christmas ornament!

We made our way across The Mall to Bishop’s Palace where we purchased combined ‘Waterford Treasures’ tickets for €20.00/person. We timed our arrival to perfection with a guided tour by ‘Susannah Penrose’ granddaughter of one of the original founders of the Penrose Glass Factory about to start. We were taken on a fascinating tour of this beautiful 18th century Georgian mansion that was constructed in 1743.

The museum includes the oldest surviving piece of Waterford Crystal in the world dating to 1789 and a shell cabinet created by Susannah’s mother, Elizabeth Penrose and populated with a menagerie of delicate glass animals crafted at her father’s factory. At the end of the guided tour, we viewed the second-floor exhibits on our own learning about Waterford’s story from 1890 to the present. The exhibits end with the Hucklebuck shoes. Apparently, the dance track ‘Hucklebuck’ was covered by Irish Royal Showband in 1965 becoming a world-wide hit. It made No.1 even in Australia but we’re all a bit too young to recall that!! At the time The Royals were Ireland’s answer to Elvis and The Beatles.

Before leaving Bishop’s Palace we lunched in their café. OMG, I am going to look like a ham and cheese toastie soon!

With the weather still horrible it was lucky that it was only a short walk to the Medieval Museum housed in the atmospheric 13th century Chorister’s Hall and the 15th century wine Vault beneath it. The museum houses some amazing medieval Cloth-of-Gold Vestments that were hidden in a strongbox under a flagstone floor for over 100 years before being rediscovered. The museum includes a history of the monarchy from Henry II (1154) to William III (1702) and also houses many ancient documents including the 1373 Great Charter of Waterford.

With rain continuing to fall our next stop was at the Irish Museum of Time. With the weather the way it is today it was lucky that all the places we wanted to visit are located closely together in the old Viking Triangle area of Waterford. The Irish Museum of Time is Ireland’s only horological museum and was created by bringing together the private collections of two avid clock collectors.

The museum hoses an incredible collection of Irish longcase clocks dated between 1685 and 1938 as well as 16th century European timepieces and a selection of table clocks and watches. Although we talked with one of the volunteers about clocks, we somehow ended up talking about solar power and Australia’s emissions targets. Bernie was able to show him the app on his phone that shows our solar array and the energy we generated yesterday. He told us that even here in Ireland he generates enough solar power to make it worthwhile.

And back out into the weather to wander around to Reginald’s Tower. The tower is one that survives from the old city walls and is named after the Viking who founded Waterford in 914. Entry to the tower was not included in our combined ticket. If the weather had been fine, we would have paid to climb the tower but there seemed little point on such a dull day.

With time remaining before our parking tickets would expire, we popped into the Irish Silver Museum since that was included in our ticket. The museum houses a stupendous collection of silver tableware that belonged to some of the great Irish families and many other silver treasures from the Viking age through to Ireland’s entry to the EU in 1973.

We returned to the cars and drove back over the River Suir to the guesthouse. And wouldn’t you know it, the rain stopped, and the sun came out soon after we returned to our rooms! Not wanting to venture far for dinner again tonight we returned to the Rhu Glen for our evening meal.



Steps: 6,095 (4.06kms)

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