A comfy night in our excellent Stable accommodation...which has an open fireplace that is definitely being used. The early preparations for a flight to Iceland have begun which sees us (me) furiously eating ALL leftover food supplies. The most voluminous of these are typical breakfast foods as our host has also supplied eggs, bacon, juice, cereal, milk and white pudding. We may be eating some brinners (breakfast dinners), to eat it all, alongside various half eaten packets of car shnacks and biccies souvenired from other accommodation offerings. Oh well.

Today we headed up the road to the relatively nearby town of Waterford and onto a tour at the famous factory. Interesting to see the process up close. The moulds that are used are mostly cast iron for the majority of the pieces but some wood ones for individual things like golf trophies etc. The crystal is a mixture of silica, potash and red lead (a type of lead oxide) that is sourced from Europe. Melted and divided into pieces of suitable size for the desired item. In the furnace room, the semi molten crystal is then blown (like glass blowing) and then either reheated to soften some more, before shaping in the mould. If it is OK, it is placed in a cooling oven to slowly come down to room temperature overnight.

The pieces have a "stem" that is ground off and then the patterns are etched on in a range of techniques, mostly done by hand, with either cuts, scrapes or sand blasting to generate the desired effect. The craftsmen all take 8 years to go from novice to master craftsman. Apparently at 5 years, there is a test where they have to make a specific bowl with over 600 individual cuts in it. Noone fails though! A lot of the work is done by hand with only a small amount of things like circles etc being done by a machine, and obviously the sand blasting. The showroom was impressive but we couldn't really make a good decision to purchase any pieces, partly for room to travel with them, and partly because most of the pieces were made in Slovakia at their second manufacturing plant...so not Waterford authentic!

Next stop across the road a bit was the cathedral. Built in the 1800s as a Georgian design, it's all a bit weird that the outside looks like a typical cathedral that the inside will reveal a gilted, ornate style as many others. Inside is not that, but quite a sparse and almost confused series of fittings and furnishings, much more protestant but leaves you a bit whelmed and ironically less affected by the spirituality of the place.

Around the corner via a traditional glass blowing and jewellery making shop, and onto the medieval museum. Downstairs was the old wine cellar and street level from over a tousand years ago. A slight spinout and interesting history of the interaction between Ireland and England, including an arranged marriage between Aoife and the Earl of Pembroke in the 1100s as a way of the then King of Ireland maintaining control (he was a bit under pressure at the time). The backwards and forwards of power through the coming 800 years was an interesting look at how things are the way they are today. From Henry VIII and the beginnings of the protestant church, the absence of a John Knox pressure here, the effect of Cromwellian influence...power struggles! With the ever present strength in numbers I assume of England, it's quite a thing that the 5 million people in Ireland have prevailed...mustn't make/have enough for England to have persisted! Waterford itself was never once defeated through all of the Viking eras and was a major seat of import, especially of wine. A tension between the English backed port at Waterford and New Ross where the Marshalls were set up, with reduced taxes for the English loyal Waterford, and the ships policing the river/harbour that feeds both big towns...cool. At the same exhibit they had a display of the only lasting set of medieval robes for mass, even in non-protestant Europe, that exist anywhere. They were hidden away in a chest that was also on display, while the protestants pretty much ruined all of the cool stuff, boo. Trying to piece together in our minds the different experience between Scotland and Ireland as protestant/catholic tensions took place, emerging to what exists today, fun.

For our last afternoon bit of adventure, we drove down including a ferry crossing, to the lighthouse at the end of the harbour. En route, we passed a super eerie looking large house on the peninsula. It was closed but has been attempted to be all sorts of things, including a hotel. It is listed as one of the most haunted places in Ireland, with sordid histroy and legends of the devil (a dark stranger) bewitching females there, before blasting out through the roof on discovery of the supernatural. Bronnie's pictures reveal some odd images in the windows from a difference including apparitions of a young boy and also of a woman. It was used as an orphanage at a time. Hmm. Two birds also seem to be frequenting her photos on what is more than coincidental basis. I think they are probably keeping an eye on us. We've had some very odd interactions with birds on this trip. A starling followed me around the other day, and on a couple of occasions (Old Man of Storr and then again at Cliffs of Moher, I've been singled out by crows who come close and talk to me, not others, weird).

Anyway, back home for a very Irish meal of baked potato and Dubliner cheese for me, baked beans on spud for Bronnie. Yummo! Thin pickings on telly but the "Bronwyn" podcast is still mint.