Ireland Vacation - Waterford Area

We ate breakfast and set out for the day. Our first stop was to the Waterford Crystal factory. We took a tour of the manufacturing area. We were able to see all steps of the process: making the wood molds for the special pieces, the firing of the ingredients, and the shaping/blowing of the crystal. Later in the tour we saw where they marked the crystal before it was cut and etched. It takes 8 years to become a Master Carver and 10 years to become a Master Engraver, those that work on the special pieces. About 17% of the pieces are rejected along the way. They are then smashed and sent back to the ovens to be remelted and the process begins again. After the tour we went to the shop where it was hard to restrain ourselves. One piece for sale was Cinderella's Carriage that was about 18 inches long. It sold for 50,000 Euros.

We ate lunch at the visitors center and then made our second attempt at finding the Hook Head Lighthouse. The lighthouse is the oldest continuously operated lighthouse in the world. It is fully automated now. It dates back to the 800's when monks in a nearby monestary first contructed the lighthouse. The lighthouse is amazing. It sits on limestone rocks that contain 150 million year old fossils. We were able to climb amongst the rocks and found a number of small fossils. There was one fossil that was about 9 inches long but it was stuck in the huge rocks. We took at tour of the lighthouse and were able to climb up to the observation deck that is just below the light. The view was great and the sky was clear.

After leaving the lighthouse we drove along the Hook Peninsula to visit the few remains of the Hook Church where the lighthouse monks lived while not at the lighthouse itself. We also went to the village of Slade where there are the remains of a small castle.

We then drove along the Ring of Hook, a picturesque drive, to the village of Ballyhack where we took a little car ferry to Waterford. It was a great little 5 minute ferry. We then made our way back to Tramore where we had fish & chips on the beach for dinner.