Europe Day 11 Killarney to Waterford July 15

Today we are left Killarney and headed for Waterford.  Our first stop this morning was at Blarney to visit the Blarney Castle where you can kiss the Blarney Stone and be granted the gift of Eloquence.  The stone castle which stands today is the 3rd structure on this site, this castle being build back in the 1400's.  We looked around the castle and the Poisenous Garden, but decided we wouldn’t do the steps and queue and kiss the Stone.



Blarney Castle



The boys in Badgers Cave at the Blarney Castle

At Blarney Castle

Boys with Blarney Castle in the background

One of the views from the top of the Castle

Our next stop for the day was in Waterford, an ancient town dating back to viking and medieval times and famous for its crystal, Waterford Crystal,  ,where  we will have our overnight stop.

The Roman walls and entry into the town of Waterford

The Roman wall as we enter the city of Waterford.
The foundations of this wall date back to the year 40, as in the first century

Making the crystal at Waterford

    This afternoon we had  a tour of the working Waterford Crystal factory which now only produces the high end products, ie trophys, one off and commission pieces as most of the run of the mill crystal is now produced in some of the Eastern Block countries of Slovenia, Slovakia and Germany.  We saw how the crystal is moulded, cut and sculpted and finished and polished and then of course , the finished product.  

Lovely, but I don't think we will be buying this one

One of the more reasonable priced pieces

 Rog and Brodie even got to have a hold of one of the trophys  for the London 2012 Olympics and we also saw the Irish Open Golf Trophy being  made.   

Brodie with one of the London Olympic 2012 trophies

Rog with the trophy

The Irish Open trophy being made
Up close it has the indents of golf balls engraved in it

 The crystal was really heavy and although we would have loved to have bought some we decided not to as there was just the small problem of getting it home. 

After arriving at our hotel we decided to go out and have a walk around the town.  Even though it was raining we had a quick look at the boat sculpture monument at the rivers edge, complete with viking plaques and then had a quick wander towards the town.  We also found the line of the medieval wall of the city.  We found a great little sports shop where Rog bought a supporters shirt for the local hurling team. Hurling is the national sport here and we have learnt quite about it on our tour, being that our tour guide is Irish.  In Rogers words, it is like hockey on steroids, so he has taken quite an interest in it.  The young guy in the shop was really lovely, a hurling player himself, and we spent about half an hour just chatting to him.   It is really nice talking to some local people and it is these people who you remember when thinking about our visit to the country.

Viking monument on the edge of the river in Waterford

Line of the medieval wall of the city of Waterford

Tomorrow morning we head to Ross Lare to catch the ferry to Pembroke on Wales, for our last overnight stop before finishing our tour on Sunday in London.