Day 11 Waterford, Ireland and Kilkenny Castle

This morning we woke up to some kind of loud clatter. Not sure what it was, but it was enough to ruin a really good early morning sleep. Needing to be up a bit earlier today we got ready, had the buffet and gathered our things for our excursion. Again the luck o' the Irish is with us as the sun is out with a cool breeze and it's going to be beautiful. We tendered into the port again today, but the ride was only 10 minutes. The air was brisk, but we sat on top again because they had it filled (crammed) with 88 people, all of us going on the same tour. Our tour guide was Mary and she talked as much as Pat did yesterday, but she gave us a little peace and quiet on the return trip. We decided that it was Pat's constant Ummms that killed us yesterday - those long drawn out moments he was searching for the right words. Exhausting.

Our bus ride was over an hour as we drove through the beautiful green countryside of Ireland. It was beautiful, but became a bit repetitive and my eyes got heavy and I may have snoozed just a bit. Our first destination today was Kilkenny Castle. Of course it has a lot of history dating back to the 1200s, but for the most recent 600 years it was owned by the Butler family. They made their money by leasing out the surrounding land to farmers. However, as the years passed, they received less and less money and eventually in the 1930s they had a 10 day auction to sell off everything in the house and walked away from the castle. In 1967 one of the heirs handed the key over to the city for only 50 pounds. Since then the city has completely refurbished the inside and it is quite lovely. The surrounding grounds are as beautiful, if not more, than the inside. Being Downton Abbey fans we were thinking back on the episode where the one family had to auction off everything because they couldn't afford to live there anymore. It made us sad. Apparently there are two Butler women who live in the US. They are all that remain of the family and they no longer hold any kind of title.

From the castle we walked down for lunch at a hotel/restaurant called Langton's. Finally something nicer than the wedding hall we were at yesterday. It was quaint and we got to sit at a table for two and have a quiet lunch. They served chicken with a mushroom sauce, cabbage and carrots. Dessert was again some kind of cheesecake, but tasted much better than yesterday's dessert. The food was just ok, but the atmosphere was lovely. After lunch we got back on the bus and headed for Waterford where we were to take a tour of the famous Waterford crystal factory. Not too exited about this, but it was part of the tour. When we arrived they had free wifi and our tour didn't start for 30 minutes. So as I shopped the very large and expensive gift shop I was downloading as many pictures as I could. I honestly was searching for something to buy, but nothing was tickling my fancy. So then starts the tour. We were first briefed by one of the Waterford guides, then taken to a holding room where all the lights were out and we had to watch a short movie before entering the factory. That's were the fun began. There was much more manual labor involved in each piece than I thought. First the crystal was heated to a molten stage then given to a glass blower who worked it with a wet wooden mold while blowing the piece. From there it is heated and blown again, then put into a metal mold where it is spun and blown. From the mold it is still slightly glowing but it is worked for a brief time and then the top part was cut off and put into a kiln for annealing overnight. From there it goes to an inspection room where the extra glass is cut away, smoothed, then sent to the next room where each piece is marked and cut by hand by experts (before being turned loose to work on the glass the artist has undergone 8 years of apprenticeship and has passed certain tests). From this point I think is where they take the pieces down the road for final finishing. All we heard was a few millimeters of the glass is taken away all around the piece, but the process requires stricter regulations as far as the health of the people around during that process. When we watched the cutters make the designs today, the cuts were etched (frosted) looking from the process of making them making the cuts. Of course the final piece is very smooth and completely clear, so that final process must be smoothing it all up in that other location. I was actually interested in that process, but didn't ask any more questions.  I was pleasantly surprised by the tour and how close we got to be to the action! It was fun to watch. Now...they also had machines that cut some of the more intricate pieces. That is how I had assumed it was all done and the final pieces were nothing that required skill. But alas! I was wrong. This stop was a real nice surprise.

Getting back on the bus there was an older couple in our seats. Normally bus etiquette is everyone stays in the same seats and you can leave your things, etc. Well, not knowing how chilly it might be in the factory, we took our jackets in and didn't leave anything behind. Of course everyone who was on the bus was in there original seats. So we hated to take someone else's. So Guy said "Where were you guys sitting before so we know where to sit". The man snidely said "In the back". Ok...? So we just went all the way to the back. When we got back on the ship the lady who had been in front of us all day saw us and said she liked Guy's comment. Letting them know in a nice way it's just easier to keep your original seats. It really doesn't matter to us, we are all going to get there at the same time. We just didn't want to mess up other people's seats (like a church pew). She said after we walked away they said "Well, they didn't leave anything in the seats to save them!" Oh well...it all worked out.

A lot of our day today was on a bus, which is fine, because without the excursion we couldn't have seen all this good stuff today, but there isn't really a lot more to write about. :) Back at the room I'm putting down my thoughts again before dinner. That was nice last night to get a jump start. And all my photos for Guernsey are all up and I've started the Cork upload before I had to leave the Waterford showroom. One forgets how nice fast wifi is when you are just used to being around it all the time. :)

We made our 8pm reservation with a few minutes to spare before they gave our seat away (they give you a 15 minute window) But I actually got ready in 50 minutes even with drying and curling the hair. Ilyana was waiting for us as usual with her contagious smile and as usual our food was very good. Guy had a crab cake, Caesar salad and short ribs. I had a pear and apple salad with pasta. Chocolate cake and an apple tart finished the meal. We chatted with Ilyana for about 20 minutes as the place was clearing out pretty quickly at this point (about 10pm) and then we headed to a place to find better wifi. What's app works great for texting in bad wifi, but it doesn't make for great calling. So I went to the middle of the ship by the elevators and called home. Mom and I chatted for a long time, but there was a bit of a delay. Certainly better than nothing!!

Looking forward to tomorrow. Dublin. We are going to explore the city on our own, take the red hop on hop off bus, get an Ireland Starbucks coffee mug for my collection and enjoy not being on a big tour bus with a strict itinerary. Winging it sounds pretty good.