08-10-2023, 03:54 PM
May 13 Waterford
I looked over the Waterford Crystal website to get more clarification about them being closed. Some pages on the site showed they would be open for tours. The one I saw said they would be closed. The tour group opted to check out Waterford Crystal when they were supposed to be open. We had to get an early start on the Waterford tour because I had booked a walking tour for the afternoon that started at 12:30. If you are going to make a schedule tight, make sure it is really tight. We had a lovely breakfast at the Diamond Hill guesthouse. They were a bit understaffed but it all worked out.
I dropped Queen and Mum in front of Waterford Crystal and then went to my familiar parking lot on Bolton Street. I misjudged the amount of money I was supposed to put in the meter, I missed paying for the all day pass by 10 cents, so I knew I would have to come back at some point to put more money in the machine.
When I returned to Waterford Crystal it became clear that they would be opening on Saturday. We just had to wait for ten minutes and then determine which door to use to gain access to the factory. It was a bit confusing. The best part of the tour was the factory supplied wheelchair for the Queen Mum. The wheelchair made everything so much better for her. The Waterford Crystal factory even had small lifts to bypass the several flights of steps along the way.The Queen Mum was very pleased.
Now, I had thought this factory was just for demonstration purposes for the tourist. But I was wrong. The bulk of the glass is blown and carved in this facility. They only really make colored glass in Eastern Europe. Of course, when I brought this up to someone later, they rightfully pointed out Waterford had relieved itself of a lot of staff with the closure of the big factory that used to be in Kinbury. One of my favorite machines in the plant was the automatic crystal engraver. I loved watching the robots arms spin the crystal around while water sluiced across the surface while grinding wheels made precision cuts. Certainly a sign of things to come. It also occurred to me that they had a lot of people working in the factory on the weekends just so tourists could be entertained.
My litany of mistakes added another notch when I decided we could all just walk over to where we were to meet the tour guide at the Granville Hotel on Meagher Quay. According to Google Maps, the Granville hotel lay just around the corner. Not so much. I should have grabbed the car. The Queen Mum barely made it. Shoot. I barely made it. I was having a bit of a sugar crash so I had to go in to the bar and get some scones and jam. That’s my excuse, anyway. I’m sticking to it. I think those were my first Irish scones. I was making so many mistakes on this trip.
Our tour guide was Jack Burtchaell and I actually had a connection to him, albeit slim. I knew his brother through Facebook. Both brothers had attended the Crescent in Limerick. Jack had graduated in the summer before I arrived and Tom was a few years behind me. When I brought up the fact that I knew Tom in some obviously unfunny way in the lobby of the Granville, Jack was completely nonplussed. The expression on his face seemed to ask ‘Who is this idiot Yank?” I decided that I didn’t need to interact with Mr. Burtchaell. The Queen Mum stayed behind in the lobby of the Granville as we headed for the tour. The Queen Mum didn’t need an hour walk.
Our tour of the Viking district was fine. We saw churches. Jack gave us the background of Thomas Meagher, who was all over the town. We went to Waterford’s Christ Church Cathedral where Strongbow and Aoife were wed leading to all sorts of turmoil about who ruled Ireland. And we saw the giant wooden sword “Dragonslayer” that is 15 meters long next to the Black Friars abbey. Jack gave out a lot of information and yet I don’t think he was a very good tour guide. It was like he had a set piece and nothing was going to divert him from that piece. There wasn’t chatter back and forth like there was between us and Brian Nolan in Waterford. At Reginald’s tower, we handed over out ten euros and went our way. I let the Queen go join the Queen Mum back at the Granville Hotel while I went to move the car. I figured I could find a closer parking space to where we were going to have lunch.
Now, there were two different groups in our tour. There were the people who just showed up off the street like I did. And there was the group that came in on a special tour bus and Jack’s tour was part of the package. The tour bus group did not pay when we paid, instead Jack led them back to their bus. I know this because that group was in front of me while I walked to the car. At the tour bus, Jack stopped and took their money. He charged them all five euros. I guess we should have taken the bus tour.
After moving the car close to the Granville hotel, I went to find the Queen and Queen Mum. I thought we were going to enjoy a nice carvery lunch in the hotel. But I was mistaken. The Queen does not care for carvery, a staple of the Irish dining experience. In the carvery lunch, you choose the main meat you want and then you get to choose whatever and how many sides you would like to go with it. I love the Carvery lunch and was looking forward to it.
Instead we wandered down Meagher’s Quay and several other Quays to McLeary’s. I really need to plan on less walking for the Queen Mum. McLeary’s was a good alternative to the Granville. Although we did stand in the doorway for what seemed a long time before a server came out to seat us.
The tour moved on to Dunbrody Abbey which boasted the second largest hedge maze in Ireland. Dunbrody would be a new abbey for me. Usually, when I tour I hit the west coast but this time I thought I should find new sights on the east coast. Granted on the 2019 tour we did visit some sights but we started in Cork and moved south and west. The whole are from Waterford to Dublin was kind of a void with the exception of the Glendalough Monastic village.
Dunbrody Abbey is in private hands so it has bit of a tourist trap feel. But it was a nice trap to be in. The Yew Hedge Maze lies next to the ruins of Dunbrody Castle. Across the road you can see the Abbey. Around the maze is a 9 hole pitch and putt course so you can see why they are trying to cater to a lot of people. When we bought the tickets to the maze, the proprietor asked us if we wanted the map to the maze. My initial reaction was to eschew the map. Who needs a map? How hard can the maze be. I reconsidered and took the map silently vowing to only use the map in emergency.
The game was to get to the platform at the center of the maze and find the names of the 7th Earl of Belfast favorite horses. The Queen led and I followed filming a hyper lapse on my cell phone. Her leading lasted about five minutes until we found ourselves back at the entrance. From there, I used the map to find our way to the center. I don’t know how people would have arrived at the platform without the map. We did find the names of the three horses as well as various odd sculptures hidden in the Yew Hedge.
To visit the abbey, you paid another fee and got the key to the gate. The Queen mum passed on the maze and also passed on the trip over the road to see the abbey. The Queen and I headed to the abbey. I brought the drone. As we entered Dunbrody, the only other couple in the place left. We had it all to ourselves. And since we had it all too ourselves, I launched the drone from inside the abbey. I did a bunch of passes atop the abbey until I realized someone else was flying their drone outside the abbey. I didn’t want to have problems so I brought the drone down. When the Queen left, she didn’t quite pull the door secure so a mother and son gained entrance to abbey, too. They had not paid for the key. I could tell because as I was leaving I could see them driving their bicycles away without having gone to the gift shop to return their key. All in all, Dunbrody was very nice. The abbey had the biggest cloister of any I had seen thus far. Sadly, all the walls of the Cloister had been destroyed leaving only the footprint.
Back at the Diamond Hill Guest House, we decided to order in pizzas for dinner. Now our pizza place of choice was recommended by the substitute owners. Benny, the regular owner was out so this lovely couple filled in for him. They gave me the menu for Chili’s Pizza. The best part about Chili’s Pizza was that every order came with chips. How can you not like that. Now, I have a problem using the cell phone to call Irish phone numbers. I can never tell if I need to connect via the calling code or because iPhones have some special feature to call international numbers I can just use that. What I am saying is I don’t think I have ever successfully dialed a number to Ireland while in Ireland. If they person in Ireland has called me, I can just hit redial. Long story long, the hostesses dialed the number for me on their phone and I placed the order. While I waited for the pizzas to arrive, I caught the end of the Munster-Leinster Rugby match. Munster won in the last minute with a drop kick over the cross bar.
The substitute hostess were kind enough to let us eat our pizzas in their little private bar area. Sure, enough the pizzas came with big bags of the worst chips I had while in Ireland. The substitutes said we had extra chips because Benny recommends Chili’s all the time. While we ate the couple sat and talked with us. The subject of politics came up and we danced around the subject. At one point the male half of the couple opined that we shouldn’t put our former president on trial. That led to quite the discussion. They were still very nice to us.
We called it an early night after dinner and went to bed. We had two beds in the Queen’s and my room. Because we were both so sick at this point, we opted to sleep in separate beds. I consumed as much paracetamol as I could while constantly having a strepcils in my mouth. More water.
I looked over the Waterford Crystal website to get more clarification about them being closed. Some pages on the site showed they would be open for tours. The one I saw said they would be closed. The tour group opted to check out Waterford Crystal when they were supposed to be open. We had to get an early start on the Waterford tour because I had booked a walking tour for the afternoon that started at 12:30. If you are going to make a schedule tight, make sure it is really tight. We had a lovely breakfast at the Diamond Hill guesthouse. They were a bit understaffed but it all worked out.
I dropped Queen and Mum in front of Waterford Crystal and then went to my familiar parking lot on Bolton Street. I misjudged the amount of money I was supposed to put in the meter, I missed paying for the all day pass by 10 cents, so I knew I would have to come back at some point to put more money in the machine.
When I returned to Waterford Crystal it became clear that they would be opening on Saturday. We just had to wait for ten minutes and then determine which door to use to gain access to the factory. It was a bit confusing. The best part of the tour was the factory supplied wheelchair for the Queen Mum. The wheelchair made everything so much better for her. The Waterford Crystal factory even had small lifts to bypass the several flights of steps along the way.The Queen Mum was very pleased.
Now, I had thought this factory was just for demonstration purposes for the tourist. But I was wrong. The bulk of the glass is blown and carved in this facility. They only really make colored glass in Eastern Europe. Of course, when I brought this up to someone later, they rightfully pointed out Waterford had relieved itself of a lot of staff with the closure of the big factory that used to be in Kinbury. One of my favorite machines in the plant was the automatic crystal engraver. I loved watching the robots arms spin the crystal around while water sluiced across the surface while grinding wheels made precision cuts. Certainly a sign of things to come. It also occurred to me that they had a lot of people working in the factory on the weekends just so tourists could be entertained.
My litany of mistakes added another notch when I decided we could all just walk over to where we were to meet the tour guide at the Granville Hotel on Meagher Quay. According to Google Maps, the Granville hotel lay just around the corner. Not so much. I should have grabbed the car. The Queen Mum barely made it. Shoot. I barely made it. I was having a bit of a sugar crash so I had to go in to the bar and get some scones and jam. That’s my excuse, anyway. I’m sticking to it. I think those were my first Irish scones. I was making so many mistakes on this trip.
Our tour guide was Jack Burtchaell and I actually had a connection to him, albeit slim. I knew his brother through Facebook. Both brothers had attended the Crescent in Limerick. Jack had graduated in the summer before I arrived and Tom was a few years behind me. When I brought up the fact that I knew Tom in some obviously unfunny way in the lobby of the Granville, Jack was completely nonplussed. The expression on his face seemed to ask ‘Who is this idiot Yank?” I decided that I didn’t need to interact with Mr. Burtchaell. The Queen Mum stayed behind in the lobby of the Granville as we headed for the tour. The Queen Mum didn’t need an hour walk.
Our tour of the Viking district was fine. We saw churches. Jack gave us the background of Thomas Meagher, who was all over the town. We went to Waterford’s Christ Church Cathedral where Strongbow and Aoife were wed leading to all sorts of turmoil about who ruled Ireland. And we saw the giant wooden sword “Dragonslayer” that is 15 meters long next to the Black Friars abbey. Jack gave out a lot of information and yet I don’t think he was a very good tour guide. It was like he had a set piece and nothing was going to divert him from that piece. There wasn’t chatter back and forth like there was between us and Brian Nolan in Waterford. At Reginald’s tower, we handed over out ten euros and went our way. I let the Queen go join the Queen Mum back at the Granville Hotel while I went to move the car. I figured I could find a closer parking space to where we were going to have lunch.
Now, there were two different groups in our tour. There were the people who just showed up off the street like I did. And there was the group that came in on a special tour bus and Jack’s tour was part of the package. The tour bus group did not pay when we paid, instead Jack led them back to their bus. I know this because that group was in front of me while I walked to the car. At the tour bus, Jack stopped and took their money. He charged them all five euros. I guess we should have taken the bus tour.
After moving the car close to the Granville hotel, I went to find the Queen and Queen Mum. I thought we were going to enjoy a nice carvery lunch in the hotel. But I was mistaken. The Queen does not care for carvery, a staple of the Irish dining experience. In the carvery lunch, you choose the main meat you want and then you get to choose whatever and how many sides you would like to go with it. I love the Carvery lunch and was looking forward to it.
Instead we wandered down Meagher’s Quay and several other Quays to McLeary’s. I really need to plan on less walking for the Queen Mum. McLeary’s was a good alternative to the Granville. Although we did stand in the doorway for what seemed a long time before a server came out to seat us.
The tour moved on to Dunbrody Abbey which boasted the second largest hedge maze in Ireland. Dunbrody would be a new abbey for me. Usually, when I tour I hit the west coast but this time I thought I should find new sights on the east coast. Granted on the 2019 tour we did visit some sights but we started in Cork and moved south and west. The whole are from Waterford to Dublin was kind of a void with the exception of the Glendalough Monastic village.
Dunbrody Abbey is in private hands so it has bit of a tourist trap feel. But it was a nice trap to be in. The Yew Hedge Maze lies next to the ruins of Dunbrody Castle. Across the road you can see the Abbey. Around the maze is a 9 hole pitch and putt course so you can see why they are trying to cater to a lot of people. When we bought the tickets to the maze, the proprietor asked us if we wanted the map to the maze. My initial reaction was to eschew the map. Who needs a map? How hard can the maze be. I reconsidered and took the map silently vowing to only use the map in emergency.
The game was to get to the platform at the center of the maze and find the names of the 7th Earl of Belfast favorite horses. The Queen led and I followed filming a hyper lapse on my cell phone. Her leading lasted about five minutes until we found ourselves back at the entrance. From there, I used the map to find our way to the center. I don’t know how people would have arrived at the platform without the map. We did find the names of the three horses as well as various odd sculptures hidden in the Yew Hedge.
To visit the abbey, you paid another fee and got the key to the gate. The Queen mum passed on the maze and also passed on the trip over the road to see the abbey. The Queen and I headed to the abbey. I brought the drone. As we entered Dunbrody, the only other couple in the place left. We had it all to ourselves. And since we had it all too ourselves, I launched the drone from inside the abbey. I did a bunch of passes atop the abbey until I realized someone else was flying their drone outside the abbey. I didn’t want to have problems so I brought the drone down. When the Queen left, she didn’t quite pull the door secure so a mother and son gained entrance to abbey, too. They had not paid for the key. I could tell because as I was leaving I could see them driving their bicycles away without having gone to the gift shop to return their key. All in all, Dunbrody was very nice. The abbey had the biggest cloister of any I had seen thus far. Sadly, all the walls of the Cloister had been destroyed leaving only the footprint.
Back at the Diamond Hill Guest House, we decided to order in pizzas for dinner. Now our pizza place of choice was recommended by the substitute owners. Benny, the regular owner was out so this lovely couple filled in for him. They gave me the menu for Chili’s Pizza. The best part about Chili’s Pizza was that every order came with chips. How can you not like that. Now, I have a problem using the cell phone to call Irish phone numbers. I can never tell if I need to connect via the calling code or because iPhones have some special feature to call international numbers I can just use that. What I am saying is I don’t think I have ever successfully dialed a number to Ireland while in Ireland. If they person in Ireland has called me, I can just hit redial. Long story long, the hostesses dialed the number for me on their phone and I placed the order. While I waited for the pizzas to arrive, I caught the end of the Munster-Leinster Rugby match. Munster won in the last minute with a drop kick over the cross bar.
The substitute hostess were kind enough to let us eat our pizzas in their little private bar area. Sure, enough the pizzas came with big bags of the worst chips I had while in Ireland. The substitutes said we had extra chips because Benny recommends Chili’s all the time. While we ate the couple sat and talked with us. The subject of politics came up and we danced around the subject. At one point the male half of the couple opined that we shouldn’t put our former president on trial. That led to quite the discussion. They were still very nice to us.
We called it an early night after dinner and went to bed. We had two beds in the Queen’s and my room. Because we were both so sick at this point, we opted to sleep in separate beds. I consumed as much paracetamol as I could while constantly having a strepcils in my mouth. More water.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm