Day 37 - August 17, 2022 - Wexford - Waterford Crystal

This morning we left Cork.  We were on the coach at 8:30 and on our way.  About 30 minutes up the road our trip leader, pointed out the town of Youghal.  He made a pointed out for us southerners that it is pronounced Y'all.  

 

It's other claim to fame is that the 1954 movie "Moby Dick" was filmed here in the harbor.

We had many great views of the ocean and rough coastline up the eastern coast of Ireland.

Around 11:30 we arrived in Waterford.  Waterford, a seaport in southeast Ireland, is the country’s oldest city. It was founded by Vikings in 914 A.D. Parts of its ancient walled core remain. as well as Reginald’s Tower, a circa-1003 fortification. It is also home to famed glass manufacturer Waterford Crystal, which began here in 1783. 

We visited the Waterford Crystal showroom and factory.  The showroom contains the worlds largest collection of Waterford Crystal, though that shouldn't be a surprise.

One example was this Motor Car.  If you can't read the price, the retail is 45,500 Euros.  You can purchase a real car for that price.

I would like to say this is our table setting for lunch, but no.

Watching the production of individual pieces by hand was fascinating.  It was also amazing that these guys wore no gloves or heat protection and worked in shorts!

Three men working together were turning out one blown piece of stemware about every 3 minutes.  Watching them was like watching a dance.

Finished blown piece which will be taken to the cooling room where it will cool for 24 hours before being cut and/or etched.

An engraver working on a custom piece.  On special order custom pieces, such as sports award trophy's , etc. they produce 3 pieces; the one to be presented a backup piece and a backups, backup piece.

After our factory tour, we went seeking lunch.  We thought an interesting place would be at The Reg.  It is located next to Reginald's Tower and some of the walls in the building are the original walls over 1000 years old.

The decoration was rather eclectic, a mixture of ancient, Victorian and modern.

Following lunch, it was back on the coach for another hours drive to Wexford where we will be spending two nights.

Selskar Abbey is a ruined twelfth-century abbey.  There is a long-standing tradition that Henry II spent Lent of 1172 at Selskar Abbey, where he did penance for the murder of Thomas Becket. It is unclear if there is any truth in the story, although Henry was in Ireland at the time, and Becket's murder, some fifteen months earlier, was still a subject of great controversy. Henry might therefore well have felt that Selskar was the right place to make an appropriate gesture of penance.

During our walk we made our way down to the waterfront.  

After a brief rest, we had dinner at the hotel.  It was good, but we are beginning to get tired of sooo much food.  I had slow roasted lamb shank which was so tender I didn't even need a knife.

I am not sure what tomorrow holds, I'll let you know tomorrow...