Friday September 13th
Today’s pedometer reading is 5.08k’s
This morning we planned to have
breakfast at The English Market in Cork however it was raining heavily and so
the 10 minute walk wasn’t a viable option. We decided to head off for the House
of Waterford Crystal in the heart of Waterford city, it’s a new manufacturing
facility, visitor centre and retail outlet. We had brunch there in The Crystal
Café and enjoyed the first REAL coffee we’ve had since we left home.
We decided to do the guided factory
tour, it took about 1 ½ hours and was very interesting, we learnt about both
historical and contemporary production techniques, it included a visit to each
aspect of production.
Each piece of crystal is hand formed and blown...
This is a ship's decanter being marked as a guide for the cutting process.
We were very impressed by the craftsmanship involved in each stage of the process. After watching this fellow for a few minutes we couldn't believe how he could work freehand with such accuracy... he stopped after a few minutes and had another look at the paper pattern he was following...he asked if we'd like to see the pattern he was working from and it was so complex...fascinating. It was obvious that all the craftsmen were happy to talk to the tourists and very proud of their work,
The opulent onsite retail
centre represents the largest display of Waterford Crystal anywhere in the world
and we succumbed to temptation and bought a couple of family heirlooms! We were very surprised to find that it was 2.30pm when we set off for Midleton.
We stopped
in Midleton for The Jameson Irish Whiskey Experience which included a walk
through the beautifully restored old distillery, mills, maltings, stillhouse,
warehouses and kilns - some of the buildings date back to 1795.
One of the old copper stills that has been removed from the distillery
so that it can be viewed in its entirety.
We also saw the fully
operational water wheel and large grain stores. The tour ends with a visit to
the largest pot still in the world prior to sampling a glass of Jameson Whiskey
in the bar.
Andrew had his on ice and I opted to have mine with ginger ale and lime…delicious!
Great idea for a light fitting!
Last night we decided that we’d have dinner
in a pub in Cork tonight however we changed our minds after talking to a couple
of locals and stopped off in Cobh instead. It’s a pretty town nestled on the
edge of Cork Harbour, the second largest harbour in the world. St. Colman’s
Cathedral overlooks the brightly coloured town and the inner islands of the
harbour, Haulbowline and Spkie. It was the last port of call of the ill fated
Titanic as she set out across the Atlantic on her maiden voyage in 1912.
We chose a pub, enjoyed our dinner and watched
the locals playing darts and families enjoying a Friday night dinner together.
We have noticed on a number of occasions that the children are not kept busy
with electronic devices but included in conversations and are very well behaved.
Another thing we’ve spoken about a couple
of times since we’ve been in Ireland is the strong feeling of connection the
Irish have with Australia. Most of the locals we’ve spoken to either know
someone who has moved to Australia or been to there on holidays themselves!
The way back to our hotel was interesting…we
just followed Howard our GPS and ended up taking the ferry for part of the
journey! Luckily we had enough cash…we’ve been using up our Euros because we
leave Ireland tomorrow!
I’ll leave you with another couple of
observations we’ve made during our time in Ireland…
In Australia we see flowers and usually
makeshift memorials on the roadside where a fatal accident has occurred while
here there are substantial and very permanent headstones.
In Australia learner drivers must have a licensed
driver in the car with them at all times while here we have seen many L plate
drivers on their own in the car. When we asked about this we were told that it’s
the same rule here but everyone is very relaxed about it and no-one really
follows through with it!
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