April 25, 2005 - Waterford.
We had a wonderful, if somewhat one-sided, conversation with our hosts over breakfast. Monika broke the ice, so to speak, by dropping her cooked tomato half into the milk pitcher. It wasn't really funny except in a slapstick kind of way, but we all broke up laughing anyway and Mrs. Powers, our hostess, came out to investigate. Rather shamefaced, I asked for a new pitcher of milk, which she supplied, and then she and her husband stayed to chat while we finished our breakfast.
Our hostess decried the new U.S. immigration rules that put a 90-day limit on visitors from the European Union, of which Ireland is a part. She also told vivid tales of Irish visitors overstaying their visa by a few days who had been put in chains and treated like criminals. Her take on the Iraq war was that it was for oil, pure and simple, and she further opined that we would invade Iran within about 18 months. She had noticed that the President had no sympathy for the Asian tsunami victims nor for the innocent victims of U.S. military actions in Iraq. It was clear to me that although our hosts liked Americans individually, they, like most of the folks in Europe, did not believe the propaganda spin of the U.S. government pronouncements and were extremely skeptical of the Bush administration and its goals.
We wrapped up our discussion after breakfast, paid our bill, and headed off to the Waterford crystal factory. It turned out to be so close to our B&B, a half-mile or so down the road, that we could have walked there had we known. As we entered the foyer we saw some extraordinary examples of the crystal glass items, some of which you would think were impossible to craft in glass. For example, I saw a coach and four horses, all made of beautifully glowing crystal.
The tour of the factory started off with a short film on the glassmaking process. It was very well done, but not nearly as impressive to me as the tour of the actual factory floor. That tour started out with the glass furnaces and the glass blowing. I was surprised to find that even in this day and age all the Waterford pieces were hand-blown, and at the first station we saw the guys blowing a vase and putting a handle on it just like I had seen glassblowers do at the Jamestown, Virginia, Glass House. The glass in the furnace was so bright and hot that it hurt my eyes unless I looked at it through the electronic viewfinder, but the crowds were thin so I was able to take some decent pictures.
The next station demonstrated the use of the molds to make the basic shape of various basic bowls and such. The force required to blow some of the bigger bowls into the molds must have been tremendous based on what little I know about it. Although the basic blowing was done by hand, every other aspect of the process had been automated to the highest degree. I was amazed at the pneumatic or hydraulic devices that opened the molds and then sprayed cooling water on the halves of the mold to cool it after the bowl had been removed. The bowl was broken from the pipe by spraying around the edge with water, which probably made it crack, and then placed on a conveyor belt to be taken to the next step in the process.
After no doubt cooling off in an annealing oven for a while, a pattern guide was drawn on each piece with black ink of some kind by an extremely complex robotic machine. Those lines, however, just acted as guidelines for the basic grinding process. A set of artisans seated in front of abrasive wheels did the grinding by hand by holding the piece carefully against the wheel. At this stage of the process, each wheel had automatic water supplied and a vacuum hose for removing the glass dust.
The final stage was using an acid dip to remove any traces of the pattern guide and return the surface to the brilliant glossy surface characterizing leaded glass. But there was also a section where they stored reference examples for the manufactured pieces. Apparently, the output from the production line was constantly compared to the original reference examples to ensure quality, and any piece with any flaw whatsoever was immediately destroyed. We heard, in fact, the occasional "CRASH" of the flawed pieces being destroyed, and I thought that might be rather fun if they let tourists do it. Haven't you always wanted to smash a piece of expensive Waterford crystal?
The final section was a set of artistic glass creations concocted by the artisans in their "free" time. Those were very impressive. The artisans were clearly exploring the limits of their craft, including the use of colored glass. One piece that depicted an underwater scene apparently used several different colors of glass, and I just couldn't figure out how that could be done.
From the last section of the factory we walked back to the gift shop and exit. The gift shop, however, really was a part of the tour since it held a tremendous collection of Waterford crystal. They would, of course, also cheerfully sell you a piece and even ship it home for you free if the purchase was over 200 Euro, but I enjoyed just looking at all the pieces. If I had seen a well-done airplane I might have been tempted, but all I found was a well-done helicopter.
Escaping from the dangers of the gift shop, we continued our drive into town and parked in a ½ hour loading zone to have a quick tour of Reginald's Tower. This old stone tower, dating back to Viking times, was part the defenses of the village of Waterford in the old days. We worked our way up the tortuous circular stone staircases with floppy rope handrails along the walls to gain access to the upper floors. The footing was tricky and Monika fell down a couple of steps, fortunately not hurting herself very badly. Each floor of the tower had exhibits where we read all about the history of the original Viking settlement and the Anglo-Norman settlement that supplanted it. On the top floor we found a scale model of the city with a TV presentation that explained various stages in the development of the town.
During the Anglo-Norman period the tower had been intermittently used as a mint. I saw a small hand scale there that could be used to weigh coins and check that they had the correct amount of silver. I was surprised to read that the church thought the use of such scales by everyday citizens was somehow sinful and preached against their use. I just couldn't follow the ecclesiastical logic on that one, but I'm sure businessmen worried about getting devalued coins used the scales in any case.
We ran back to the car just as our ½ hour grace period expired and started driving back westward toward Cahir, stopping off at Carrick-on-Suir to view a fortified Elizabethan period manor house attached to the ruins of Ormand Castle. That was the first attraction we were unable to visit in Ireland due to being there so early in the season-the house was only open from June through September. In the end we had to be content with walking around and looking at the house from the outside, followed by lunch in a nearby pub.
Cahir Castle was a large, restored castle dating from the 12th Century. It had been built by the Anglo-Normans during their conquest of Ireland and figured in several fights since then. We enjoyed wandering around its rooms and ramparts for an hour or so, and then took in the short movie in the adjacent house that was very well done; it showed several beautiful Irish castles in addition to Cahir Castle. This castle also had a complete portcullis mechanism and gate adjacent to the main keep that showed how it all worked.
Turning northward, we headed for Cashel where we wanted to visit the Rock of Cashel, a ruined abbey built on a rock at the edge of town. We arrived after 5 p.m. so it was too late to visit the abbey, but we found a nice B&B in the middle of town and then walked around to find a place for our evening meal. We decided on a place called "Abrakebabra" that featured kebabs, burgers, wraps, and gyro sandwiches. The food was quite good but the ambiance was the complete antithesis of the Holy Cross Bar where we had eaten dinner just the night before.
To begin with, the interior furnishings were all stainless steel serving counters and Formica tables, something on the order of a 1950s soda fountain in the U.S. The radio station blaring at us had been tuned to Irish popular music, and that apparently consisted of either U.S. popular rock tunes or Irish imitations of that style. Lois managed to discern the song "Whiskey in the Jar" on the radio, but it had been so speeded up and converted to rock form that I for the life of me couldn't recognize the original tune. The gentleman at the next table was wearing a pair of jeans and New Balance shoes just like I had in my suitcase. The net result of all this was that if I just squinted my eyes a bit, the place felt just like I was back in some fast food joint in America.
Since 24 hours back we had been in an authentic Irish pub listening to old-fashioned Irish folk music, this modern ambience came as something of a jolt. Obviously you can experience very different "Irelands" depending on where you eat and sleep, and what exactly you try to do while you are there. It reminded me when I was asked about all the "wild sex, booze, and illegal drugs" that were supposed to typify Germany, and I had to reply that I had never seen that part at all.
In any case, after our thoroughly modern dinner we ambled back to the B&B through the middle of town and stumbled on the ruins of Dominic's Abbey. The arched windows made it instantly recognizable, and as is usually the case for the old church ruins in Ireland, the stone walls were still mostly standing although the roof was gone. We took some pictures and continued back to our B&B where we amused ourselves in our customary way for the rest of the evening.
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