Waterford

Waterford and WOW naturally go together!  Today, we traveled east to Waterford to see the Crystal being made.  Again.........WOW!  Who knew all the history behind this factory and the magnificence of the crystal itself! 

 

Waterford Crystal is a manufacturer of crystal. It is named after the city of Waterford, Ireland. Waterford Crystal is owned by WWRD Group Holdings Ltd, a luxury goods group which also owns and operates the Wedgwood and Royal Doulton brands. WWRD was acquired 2 July 2015 by the Fiskars Corporation.

In January 2009 its Waterford base was closed down due to the bankruptcy of the Wedgwood Group. After several difficulties and takeovers, it re-emerged later that year. In June 2010, Waterford Crystal relocated almost back to its original roots, on The Mall in Waterford City. This new location is now home to a manufacturing facility that melts over 750 tonnes of crystal a year. This new facility offers visitors the opportunity to take guided tours of the factory and also offers a retail store, showcasing the world's largest collection of Waterford Crystal.

The Master Craftsmen have to go to school for 8 years!  Amazing!

This piece below is a replica that is housed in one of the firehouses in New York City in honor of 911

What a fantastic tour!  So glad we got to see how this beautiful crystal is made!

The Blarney Stone

Another amazing day today.  We checked out of our hotel, said, "Good-bye" to our friends, and drove a couple miles down the road to visit the Muckross House.
 
The Muckross House is a mansion designed by the Scottish architect, William Burn, built in 1843 for Henry Arthur Herbert and his wife, the watercolourist Mary Balfour Herbert.
With sixty-five rooms, it was built in the Tudor style. Extensive improvements were undertaken in the 1850s in preparation for the visit of Queen Victoria in 1861. It is said that these improvements for the Queen's visit were a contributory factor in the financial difficulties suffered by the Herbert family which resulted in the sale of the estate. In 1899 it was bought by Arthur Guinness, 1st Baron Ardilaun who wanted to preserve the dramatic landscape.
In August 1911, not long before the First World War, Muckross House and its demesne were again sold to William Bowers Bourn, a wealthy Californian mining magnate. He and his wife passed it to their daughter Maud and her husband Arthur Rose Vincent as a wedding present. The couple lived there until Maud's death in 1929.
In 1932 her parents Mr and Mrs Bournes and their son-in-law Arthur Vincent decided to present Muckross House and its 11,000 acre estate to the Irish nation. Being called the ″Bourne-Vincent Memorial Park″, it thus became the first National Park in the Republic of Ireland and formed the basis of present day Killarney National Park. In later years the park was substantially expanded by the acquisition of land from the former Earl of Kenmare's estate.
 
We did the one hour tour and it was amazing, but they did not allow any pictures from the inside.  Below is a picture of the outside!

 

Then, we drove east towards Cork and visited the Blarney Castle.  What a fun place!  And, YES, we both kissed the Blarney Stone!

 

The castle originally dates from before 1200, when a wooden structure was believed to have been built on the site, although no evidence remains of this. Around 1210 this was replaced by a stone fortification. It was destroyed in 1446, but subsequently rebuilt by Cormac Laidir MacCarthy, Lord of Muscry, who also built castles at Kilcrea and Carrignamuck.

The castle was besieged during the Irish Confederate Wars and was seized in 1646 by Parliamentarian forces under Lord Broghill. However after the Restoration the castle was restored to Donough MacCarty, who was made 1st Earl of Clancarty.

During the Williamite War in Ireland in the 1690s, the then 4th Earl of Clancarty (also named Donough MacCarty) was captured and his lands (including Blarney Castle) were confiscated by the Williamites.

The castle was sold and changed hands a number of times-Sir Richard Pyne, the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, owned it briefly- before being purchased in the early 1700s by Sir James St. John Jefferyes, then Governor of Cork City.

Members of the Jefferyes family would later build a mansion near the keep. This house was destroyed by fire however, and in 1874 a replacement baronial mansion—known as Blarney House—was built overlooking the nearby lake.

 

The castle is now a partial ruin with some accessible rooms and battlements. At the top of the castle lies the Stone of Eloquence, better known as the Blarney Stone. Tourists visiting Blarney Castle may hang upside-down over a sheer drop to kiss the stone, which is said to give the gift of eloquence. There are many legends as to the origin of the stone, but some say that it was the Lia Fáil—a magical stone upon which Irish kings were crowned.

 

 

 

Then we drove south to Kinsale.  Our Hotel is amazing!  This is the view from our patio!

You are looking into our room!!

  

 Tomorrow we are off to the Waterford Crystal Store!  Wohoo!  We are really covering some ground!

Gap of Dunloe

I can't believe we are at the end of our riding trip.  Tomorrow, everyone will go their separate ways.  Some are flying home, and some are doing more days in different cities.  Dan and Karen are actually going north to Belfast with our Tour Guides and doing 5 more days of riding in the north.  We will be traveling on to Cork, Kinsale, Kilkenny, Limerick, and then on to Shannon where we will fly home.

 

Today's adventure was magnificent!  We rode our bikes to Ross Castle and took a boat ride (with our bikes) across the lake (in the rain) for a 1 and a half hour ride to the base of the Gap of Dunloe.

At this point, we had to get out of the boat and walk a ways because the waterway was too narrow.

 

 

It was wet and wild, but I'm SO glad we did it!  On the boat we met Carmel and Karen.  They were so delightful to talk to.  Karen, on the right, was actually the MAYOR of her town! 

Well, I have to admit, I haven't done any riding like I've done here in Ireland:

Jami Ribera 190.1 miles 11,270 ft. of climbing 5 days

Excited for the next part of our journey.......not exciting about renting a car and driving in this bloody country!!