Blogs from County Waterford, Ireland, Europe - page 5

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

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

Today a few of the guys got up bright and early to try out the mountaineering club. We were mostly unaware of where we were headed, just knew it was called Mahon Falls. We arrived at the drop off in the sleet. I was not looking forward to hiking in the snow and sleet. When we got out the van we saw we were surrounded by a few beautiful snowing mountains and a distance waterfall. The location was absolutely surreal and we started to get excited. We first hiked up the trailless mountain through the winds and snow. It was a good workout and ended up being a blast. After about an hour we reached the peak. Everyone stopped to play in the snow, it was awesome. We then headed to the waterfall side to begin ... read more

As expected, getting up on our first full day in Ireland was not difficult. No alarm clock required! By 6 am we were wide awake…as if we had just taken a long afternoon siesta… On the docket for day 2 was a visit of Cashel, another one of Ireland’s must-see sites. And you guessed it…it was more ruins! For those who don’t know, Ireland has four provinces which are made up of 5-6 or more counties: Connaught, Ulster, Leinster and Munster. Until the 12c when Anglo-Norman influence caused their power to wane, Kings ruled each province and one of these kings served as High King of all of Ireland. Cashel was the seat of power of the Kings of Munster, and for good reason. A prominent rock formation dominates the surrounding Suir river valley. After its ... read more

It's hard to believe but we've been in Ireland for a month. I'm amazed at how fast the time has gone. Even though we've covered a lot of ground, there's still so much to see. I guess I'll just have to come back some day and continue exploring this little green island. The last one and a half weeks have been pretty action packed. We've covered a lot of distance to get to Dublin so we could have time to explore before Conor flies out. After our very exciting hitch hike ride we arrived in Killarney where we stayed for three nights. Killarny is situated right on th edge of a giant national park of green mountains, lakes, waterfalls, woodlands, and castles. We rented bikes and cruised through the park circling aournd two lakes and meandering ... read more