Ireland on Tour 2002

The flight across the ocean was fine but the connection to Manchester from Heathrow sucked. The arm rests in the seats didn't fold up flush with the seat so it was digging in my back the whole way. Mercifully, the plane was only 25% full and the flight was only a half hour. The luggage Gods smiled once again and everything arrived with me.

Most of this weekend was spent with many friends in the Manchester area, some of whom came from outside the area for a meal on Saturday night. We visited, we shopped, we thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. We ate twice in a Weatherspoon's pub, the Sedge Linn in Chorlton, we pub crawled our way around Chorlton and hit a few in the Manchester city centre as well. There was a meal at a Chinese restaurant that was formerly a pretty good place to go. Perhaps we hit a bad night but with one disaster after another, we aren't going to take the chance on it again. See the review for Woo Sang for details.

My friend Alan and I took the bus to nearby Stockport to visit the Hatworks musem (see the review for details). It's only a half hour by bus and I had wanted to see their Hatworks Museum. This area, Stockport - Denby was one of the most important hat making areas over the last couple of centuries up until about the 1940's. Felt was the main material hats were made of around here, from wool or fur, mainly rabbit fur. The big London hat retailers may have stamped the hats with their mark but the hats were manufactured here.

We had a guided tour through the museum and learned all about how the hats were made (see attraction review) then had a late lunch in the lovely cafe. We then had a walk around the city center of Stockport. Alan knows it well because he lived there for years. There is a nice mix of some very old buildings including a few lovely 16th century half timbered houses. One is the Underbank Hall and is used now as a NatWest bank. We saw the market which was just about done for the day a nice pedestrian shopping area, remodeled from it's 1970's origins. It was a beautiful spring day, sunny and warm and a far cry from cold Halifax.

On Easter Saturday, four of us went for a drive out in the countryside through the Peak District National Park area to visit Matlock Bath. on a sunny if hazy day! We drove through the Peak National Park, so beautiful with it's rolling hills sectioned off with low stone fences and sheep dotting the hillsides. There were several flocks today that had lots of newborn lambs skipping about or nestled on the ground in clusters near their mothers.

Matlock Bath was a spa town and is in an area that used to be concerned with lead mining along the River Derwent that winds it's way through Matlock. You can rent rowing punts or short kayaks to travel the river. The high street, or promenade, is lined with gift shops, a few amusement arcades, a Mining Museum in a large pavilion and lots of little restaurants, pubs and takeaways. Matlock also seems to attract hundreds of touring motorcyclists and today was no exception. There were several hundred bikes parked in sections along the street and the sidewalks were filled with men and women dressed in brightly coloured full body leathers and helmets out to enjoy the early spring day.

We parked in a car park about a kilometer outside of the town center and walked in along the road that follows the river. One of the local attractions is the Heights of Abraham which is on top of a cliff overlooking the town. You can get there via a cable car and we can see the cars drifting back and forth from their cables high above us. John and I plan to have a ride on it later though Alan and Nikki have already decided Heights, both the attraction *and* the physical sensation are not for them!

We wandered along the main street looking for a place to have our lunch, someplace that appealed to us all and that wasn't too crowded. We ended up at a small pub called the Princess Victoria and the food and beer both were pretty good! We had a stop at an ice cream stand and a look-see in a couple of the shops before seeing if we could get to the Cable Car depot via a path on the other side of the river. We can't. Back across the old footbridge and up to the train station which is near the cable car thingo. We paid £7.30 for the ride but that includes all the attractions at the top of the cliff, including a couple of old mining caverns you can go into.

But we had a time restraint because we had to be back into Manchester to get ready to meet others for dinner tonight so in the end, we paid all that just to ride up, get off, take a few pictures and queue up to go back down again! The cars are small, fitting 6 people max in each of a group of three that goes up at a time. Still the views *were* pretty great and we could see off in the distance on the top of a hill Riber Castle which glowed in the late afternoon sun.

Traffic was pretty slow coming out of Matlock. Later we crossed over the Chatsworth estate and took a quick drive in and out of the village of Eyam. It's a gorgeous stone village that is famous for self-isolating itself in 1665 from the plague which reached them via some infected cloth from London. In doing so they managed to prevent the disease from spreading around the area outside the village and saved hundreds of lives or more.

That night was the Woo Sang disaster though it has to be said, the food was as good as always. I've just never had service so bad!
We all convened to a nearby pub for a nightcap before going separate ways.


On Sunday night, Annie and i went to an outstanding production of Midsummers Night's Dream at the Royal Exchange Theatre. We sat on the banquette benches on the stage floor (this is a theatre in the round, see a separate review for more details) with all the action at our feet! It was an absolutely amazing and very imaginative production and very physically demanding for some of the actors. There was a little pothole/puddle that most of them ended up in at some point and they were leaping around, on and off the stage, down from the rafters on ropes and a light standard. At the end, the play within the play was hysterical and at one point they had a few audience members on stage with everyone else clapping, line dancing to Achy Breaky Heart! Yes, this really is Shakespeare but it really worked!

We went for a drink after so we could sit and rave about it. I made sure I'm all packed as much as I can be for tomorrow. I can get a city bus directly from Fallowfield to the airport. I'll be traveling most of tomorrow so I don't think we're doing much tomorrow evening, just hanging out and visiting with Rose and Malachy.

The Royal ExchangeTh used to be just that, a stock exchange and financial institution in the centre of Manchester. It's in a magnificent building with gorgeous stonework and high plastered ceilings inside. It's now a theatre but one with a difference. When you enter the building, inside in the middle of the building there is a structure that looks a bit like a space pod. This is the theatre. It is in fact a theatre in the round. Inside, the stage is on the floor, surrounded by "banquettes", and the seats can be on the ground level or rise around it up into the seven sides of the steel and glass "pod". It can seat up to 700! They sometimes sell the banquette seats on the day of a performance for a reduced rate, if there are any available. There is also a smaller studio type theatre for more intimate productions which seats 120.

I've seen several performances in the theatre, all top notch. They do a wide variety of theatre from classic (Ibsen, Chekov) th Shakespeare to modern drama. You will likely see top names on the marquee and excellent performances. As it's right in the centre of the city, there are plenty of restaurants for pre or post dinner nosh.

You can buy tickets online or at the box office and prices are fairly reasonable. You won't likely be paying London theatre prices here. The most you will *usually* pay is £25 but there are discounts available for various groups including people with disabilities, pensioners, preview showings etc. There's a bar and cafe in the theatre as well.

There is an elevator for access off St. Anne's Square and wheelchair spaces are available. For this type of seating, you must contact the box office direction rather than use the website. People with disabilities get their tickets half price as well as the same for a companion. They are on the corner of St. Anne's Square across from the Arndale shopping center and one street over from Deansgate.

This restaurant is up a flight of stairs so not easy to get to for anyone with mobility issues.

I've been here with a very large group before (2000) and both the service and the food were excellent. This time around we were 10 at the table but the table seemed too small for us. The drinks orders were slow in coming and sometimes the wait staff forgot to ask everyone for reorders. The rest of the evening was one service disaster after another. They didn't provide us with a circular movable platform for the center of the table to make passing around the dishes easier and when someone finally complained loudly, we did get one. Which was broken and we had to gingerly turn the glass ourselves and hope it moved.

They brought two courses out at once instead of one at a time, further confusing and crowding the table as everyone tried to reach and pass. The one waitress kept elbowing one couple, leaning around them and at one point one man received a beer right down his back! Alan spilled another one trying to move something else out of the way. The music on the sound system was horrible, pan pipes playing every kind of music except Chinese. The piece de resistance was a lovely dish of prawns which suddenly acquired an extra bit.... a big blue bottle fly that was hovering landed in it, got stuck in the sauce and wiggled it's little legs helplessly while the 10 of us collectively moaned loudly... ewwwwwwwww! The waitress seemed to find this amusing but took the dish back to replace it. Hopefully with something new but it took us 15 minutes of warily contemplating the fresh replacement before anyone had the nerve to try some!

To top it all off, yes it's possible to further wreck this, they buggered up the bill! The manager was sought out, he who had conveniently NOT managed his restaurant very well tonight, having found plenty to keep him busy behind the bar instead of being aware of the problems going on under his nose. The events of the night were explained, which they *think* were confirmed by the staff but not speaking any Chinese, they had to take that on faith. The manager offered them 30 pounds off the bar bill (which was about 50 pounds between the 10 of us). He wouldn't extend that to the entire 50 so we took it and then counted out the money to pay the 235 pound total bill to the penny! No tip. So that's quite a lot of money they ended up losing over all. We took the thirty pounds and, discovering that our favourite Copperface Jack's was closed, spent it on a round or two of drinks at Lass O'Gowrie on Charles Street.

Hatworks Museum
The day we visited was an appropriate day seeing as the signs there proclaimed this as National Hat Week! (Easter week, 2002) There is a conducted tour that starts with a film, some of which is rare footage from the 1930's of Battersby's Hat works. We were told how they were made, first by hand and later by machine. Hats made out of felt had shellac added for stiffness and were shaped over wooden forms to give the hat it's shape. There were only the 2 of us plus a woman and her granddaughter on the tour. Also there is a museum with all sorts of exhibits of hats of every kind, ceremonial, sporting, military, religious, dress, etc. There was a big felt tent called a Yurt that is seen around Central Asia. Very colourful too. Felt is believed to be an older craft even than weaving and the craft of hatting has been a British guild since the 16th century. The museum has a working replica of the factory floor with real working machinery.

We also discovered the origins of the phrase "Mad as a Hatter" - felt used to be treated with mercury during the processing and the handlers of course absorbed the deadly chemical and it adversely affected their nervous systems!

There's a bright sunny cafe in the museum for a light lunch or coffee. Admission to the museum is free though the tours are £2.50, which is a pittance and well worth the price! There's a family area for kids with activities. It's open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends and bank holidays. The museum is next to the bus station and not far from the train station and is on the main route through town. You can't miss the tall smoke stacks. There are ramps on the main street level and lifts for accessibility. Photography is allowed.

Manchester is not always thought of as a major shopping destination but it has quite a lot to offer, if not quite as much as a city like London. Most shoppers will be more than satisfied with the selection available from markets to upscale stores like Selfridges and designer shops.

Marks and Spencer has rebuilt it's city centre store after an IRA bomb leveled it in the 1990s. It's now one of the largest in the country and is considered it's flagship store. Other major stores in the same area include Selfridges, Debenhams and Kendalls. These stores are steps away from the renovated Arndale Shopping mall and a host of other good shops in the Royal Exchange/St. Anne's Square/King Street West area. the nearby Old Corn Exchange building has been restored from the bomb damage it suffered and now houses designer stores and restaurants. Deansgate is also handy for high street shops and restaurants.

A few blocks away is the wonderful Affleck's containing four floors of market stalls for alternative tastes.

A little further afield is the amazing Trafford Centre. Many busses will take you there and the tram goes close with a shuttle bus. This is a lovely mall with John Lewis as it's anchor. The decoration and skylight domes make the mall bright and cheerful. There are themed food court areas for various parts of the world (Chinese, New Orleans, Italian etc) and there is a large cinema complex, casino and games arcade.

Also on the tram line is the Lowry Designer Outlet centre by the Lowry theatre and gallery in Salford Quays. Excellent shopping and bargains to be found there as well.

Cobh is a small town on an island in Cork City's harbour, It used to be called Queenstown after Queen Victoria and was the embarkation point for thousands of Irish who emigrated during the Great Famine of the 1840's. There's also a Titanic connection as it was the last port of call before the liner headed off across the North Atlantic, ultimately meeting its icy cold fate.

There's a Heritage Center called the Queenstown Story, a nearby wildlife preserve on Fota Island, and a lovely cathedral (all three have separate reviews in this journal) and lots of lovely shops, pubs and monuments scattered around the picturesque and sometimes *very* steep streets that are lined with brightly painted buildings and houses.

I'm visiting friends Rose and Mal. I flew from Manchester to Dublin and took a shuttle bus to Heuston station. The bus came through the north side of the city and along the River Liffey. Interesting to see the different styles of buildings. They don't usually have a lot of flourishes, architecturally. Some brick, some stone, many plaster covered with bright paint. Not much neon. Instead, shop fronts are painted very brightly with floodlights over the signs.

The train journey was uneventful, as it wound it's way south through farmland, much of which I couldn't see anyway because of the banks and hedges beside the tracks.

Rose, Mal and their little Jack were waiting in the car at the station and they took me to a pub on the Island outside of Cobh. No worries here bringing children into pubs. They seem to be quite welcome. The food was good in the Elm Tree as was the beer.

Later I got checked into the Atlantic Inn, (no review as it's no longer open) right on Cobh's lovely waterfront. My room overlooked the harbour. From the fourth floor. No lift. Needless to say I made sure I had everything with me when I went down to breakfast in the morning so I didn't need to climb up more than necessary! Breakfast included, I paid 32 euros for a single en suite. To Rose's for dinner, drinks and a chat.

Slept well, bed comfy. The room was cold when I checked in but was marginally warmer when I came back. The quilt was super warm so I was cozy. The view over Cork harbour was panoramic in the crisp morning sun. One good thing about being on the top floor, the view is great! Shower was nice and hot and breakfast was great!

I walked along the waterfront taking photos. A group of kids of various ages were getting two small sailboats sails ready to launch in very businesslike fashion. I later saw the red sails glinting out on the harbour most of the morning. There's a military base across the harbour and I saw a couple of ships sail out.

The houses and buildings here are square, plastered with very little adornment, painted brightly and no two houses side by side are the same colour. The window casements are painted a contrasting colour and gleamed in the morning sun. There are LOTS of pubs, over 40. There are lots of shipping liner references, The Lusitania victims are buried in an old cemetery on the outskirts of the village and Cobh, or Queenstown then, was the last port of call for the Titanic before it headed across the Atlantic. There is a restaurant that was renovated with a Titanic theme with the bar was remodeled on one of the bars in the Titanic.

I browsed in the shops and got a few pieces of jewelry for gifts.

We next headed for the cathedral, which is just a few blocks up from the waterfront and dominates the skyline of the town. The cathedral is dedicated to St. Colman and was built between 1868 and 1925. The floor is parquet but up the aisles is a tile mosaic made to look like a Celtic knot runner carpet.A couple of entranceways to side chapels have swastikas worked into and around the knotwork but back when the it was built the swastika was considered a good luck symbol! The view from the Cathedral yard over the town and harbour was fabulous!

We went for lunch at the golf club on Fota Island, a 780 acre island that used to be an estate. The island now contains a golf course, a wildlife park and gardens and the old estate house. We had a bowl of chowder and Irish soda bread in a sunny informal dining area in the bar.

I spend an enjoyable hour or so walking the paths in the wildlife park and watching the animals. Most of the enclosures are open with just a fence around the perimeters. There was a bison, kangaroos, penguins, elands, giraffes and loads of water birds and flamingoes and peacocks roaming around. There are a few small islands in a manmade lake that houses several species of monkeys. My favourites were the giraffes! They seem to move around in slow motion, only awkward when they attempt to get up off the ground or reach down to the grass.

I walked through the arboretum and past the rose gardens to the estate house (separate entrance fee) whose main feature is some wonderful plaster work on the ceilings which are restored to the Regency period. The house was an 18c. hunting lodge and later enlarged in the early 19c. There isn't much furniture in the house but there are interactive displays on things like the house's history and hidden nooks and crannies. The kitchens had lots of copper pots and a big contraption that is used to hang the proceeds of the day's hunting, birds mainly.

Rose met me and on the way back across the bridge to the island that Cobh is on, we stopped for a photo op of Belvelly castle. Ireland has hundreds of these tall square castle towers dotting the countryside, some intact, some mere shells and some in a state somewhere in between. Belvelly is unsafe to go into now. Rose thinks it might be Norman and it does have narrow cross openings like those used to fire arrows through. Nearby is an old Martello Tower as well. We then went back downtown to the Titanic bar for a drink and I tried my first real Irish Guinness and surprisingly I really liked it! The bar has lots of pictures from the Titanic and some lovely antiques and memorabilia around the walls and behind the bar.

Back to Rose's for our supper. Got back to the hotel around 11 and all that fresh air today is making me sleepy!

The next day after breakfast I walked down to the Queenstown museum. I had time to wander through the exhibits this morning. There were artifacts, passenger and supply lists, posters, photographs and video exhibits. There were reconstructions of state rooms and lots of information printed on display boards.

I came back to the hotel to have a cup of tea in my room before Rose arrived. We picked up her mother and drove into rural County Cork to Barryscourt Castle, another of the square tower castles. Unlucky for us though, it was closed Thursdays! Too bad because it looked like there was a lovely little tea room on the grounds.

Back out into the countryside, blue skies and rolling hills to the Stephen Pearce pottery showroom near the factory. Pearce's signature design is unglazed brown with a white glaze trim.

Then there was a search for an accessible loo that Rose's mother would be able to manage with her cane since the one at the shop was downstairs.That sorted, we drove into a town called Middleton for a late lunch.

I found out some of the meanings behind the more common place names in Ireland, many of which have common prefixes or suffixes. There's "carraig" meaning "rock", "Bally" meaning "town" and "Kil" meaning "church". "Lough" is "lake", similar to "loch" in Scotland and pronounced much the same.

Tonight Rose, Mal and I went to a performance in the Sirius Arts Center on the waterfront. The artist performing is a singer/songwriter called Mick Hanley. The venue was just a small room set up to seat 50. The building used to be the Royal Cork Yacht Club which was the first and oldest yacht club in the world. Hanley played a very entertaining acoustic set, just he and his guitar and his songs all had stories. The tickets were 10 euros each so they couldn't have made a lot but those that were there came away satisfied. We met some of their friends across the road in the Pillars bar and then back to the hotel to make sure everything is packed up and it's off to Dublin tomorrow morning.

The town of Cobh (pronounced "Cove") is an old fishing village that used to be called Queenstown for awhile. It was rename from Cove for Queen Victoria but took back it's Irish name and Irish spelling in the 20th century. Cobh was a major departure point for Irish immigrants leaving the country in the 19th century. There's actually statue of the woman who was the first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island in New York.

The exhibits are set up in three eras. The first focuses on the convict transports and the second, the era of and explores the conditions on board. In the middle of the 19th c. the potato famine drove emigration into the millions. Between emigration and death, Ireland's population halved during the course of just a few decades.

The beginning of the 20th c. led into the steam liner era for both emigration and transatlantic transport for business, holiday etc. Many liners called at Queenstown as their last port before the crossing including the Titanic and Lusitania. The Lusitania was torpedoed by German U-boats in 1915 just 30 miles off the coast. There are artifacts, passenger and supply lists, posters, photographs and video exhibits. (There are many graves from victims of the Lusitania buried in Cobh, as well) There were reconstructions of state rooms and lots of information printed on display boards.

The building itself used to be a railway station. There's now some lovely gift shops and a little cafe in the building. It's completely wheelchair accessible.

There's a statue outside the Queenstown museum of a woman named Anne Moore with her two brothers. In 1892, on January 1, she was the first immigrant processed through the brand new facility on Ellis Island, New York.

Open 7 days a week, all year except for 2 weeks at Christmas. Current admission rates are 7.10 euro per adult with discounts for children and seniors. You can visit the building for free if you just want to shop or have a cup of tea.

To find it, follow the street along the waterfront, to the right as you face the harbour. You won't miss it.

On a smaller island in Cork harbour, connected by causeway/bridge to the Great Island where Cobh is and the mainland where Cork is, you will find Fota Island. Fota Island has several attractions and a hotel. You can play a round of golf here, visit the Regency Fota House and the wildlife park as well.

The house itself is elegant and has amazing plaster work and ceilings. The Victorian kitchen is very well appointed and there's a nice little tea room. It was originally owned by the Smith-Barry family built by architect Richard Morrison.

The wildlife park has over 90 species of animals and birds over x acres. It's a registered charity and has been open since 1983. There's a tour train, picnic areas, a playground and a gift shop. They have special programs for kids.

Some of the animals you might see are giraffes, cheetah, gibbons, monkeys, ibis, oryx, tapir, Zebra, penguin and others!

Price is 13 euro for an adult, discounts for children and seniors with group and family rates available. You will pay a separate smaller entrance fee to visit Fota House.

Getting there: Off the Cobh Road (R22) from Cork City just before Belvelly castle. There is a Direct Rail Service to FOTA Wildlife Park Station. Cork to Fota only 15 minutes.

The Catholic cathedral is dedicated to St. Colman and was built between 1868 and 1925. The floor is parquet but up the aisles is a tile mosaic made to look like a Celtic knot runner carpet. Really nice! A couple of places, entranceways through to side chapels, have swastikas worked into and around the knotwork but back when the cathedral was built the swastika was considered a good luck symbol! The view from the Cathedral yard over the town and harbour was fabulous!

Most of us made it up for breakfast and then a few of us made our way around the corner to the antiques fair which was in the old gymnasium of Newman House. We had seen a sign at the intersection all weekend advertising the sale for Sunday morning and we were not disappointed! Oooh it was lovely! Lots of linen, jewelry, china and other odds and sods of memorabilia packed into the two aisles and what looked like the stage area. I bought some old linen and a really interesting ring and Carole bought some jewelry as well.

We all converged back at the bar in the hotel for 1 p.m. for a goodbye drink and a Show And Tell for our morning's purchases and activities. We had lots of laughs hugs, tears (that would be me!) and a group photo taken. We scattered in taxis, some to the airport, train stations and Carole and I to the Jurys Montrose which is out in the posh suburb of Donnybrook. We were due to join the tour's included orientation tour of the city at 3 and we just made it with about 20 minutes to spare once we got checked in.

Our Globus tour guide is called Bill Dalton and Alex is our driver. Bill, as I later found out, is from Dublin county but speaks with and educated British accent due to, as he says, the school he went to thrashing it out of him. He was very knowledgeable and very witty and he made the week very enjoyable. Our group is about 40 in numbers, about 9 Canadians, a couple from New Zealand and the rest from the U.S.A.

Our tour took us around the main sights of Dublin and included a stop at Trinity College to see the famous Book of Kells in the old Library. It is a decorated manuscript of the four gospels copied by monks circa 800 A.D. The experts believe the main illustrations, or illuminations as they are more commonly called, are the work of 3 or 4 men. The exhibit had lots of illustrations and posters about the making of the book along with some other old manuscripts, totaling 4 other lesser known illuminated books, the books of Durrow, Mulling, Armagh and Dimma. The Books of Kells and Durrow are displayed open to elaborate pages under glass in a darkened room. The detail of the larger pages and the intricacy of the artwork around the writing is unbelievable. It's difficult to really take it all in but I bought a book that has lots of the detail work enlarged.

We later viewed the Old Library at the college which was founded by Elizabeth I in the later years of her reign. The library used to be a single floor but was filled so they removed the roof and raised it about 150 years ago. It's full again now. It's a long room, with natural light streaming in between the shelves lined with over 200,000 valuable old books. The ceiling is high, soaring arched and the aisle is lined with sculpted busts of philosophers and famous men associated with the college over the years. You can't take photos and I *really* wanted to. The lines and light were truly a sight to drop your jaw and lighten your heart.

We walked around the college green afterwards, taking photos of the buildings from the various eras under clear blue skies. We found an ATM tucked away around the corner before meeting back at the bus for the rest of the drive around O'Connell Street and Parnell Square north of the Liffey and the Grand Canal which along with the Royal Canal, were built to connect the Liffey, Lee and Shannon rivers. The canals weren't used for transport anymore once the train system was built.

We got back to the hotel in time to sort out a quick change of clothes before a meet and greet in the bar before dinner. We used a smaller elevator that is usually used for luggage and the damn thing got stuck and wouldn't open on our floor with just 6 of us crowded in to it. We buzzed and hollered and were heard by some guests who alerted the front desk who released us after about 15 minutes. Whew!

We met a few people in the bar, most of whom had just flown in so were struggling to keep awake after overnight flights. Dinner was all right but nothing spectacular although the soup was pretty tasty. Early night tonight as we have an early start tomorrow.

I've only stayed at the Harcourt Hotel once, and that was in 2002 so bear that in mind. The location is on Harcourt Street, about a 10 minute walk from St. Stephen's Green and Grafton Street. The location might not be dead center but it's very good. The hotel takes up several townhouses that have George Bernard Shaw associations. There is an elevator in the hotel and there is a restaurant, nightclub and a very cozy after hours bar called Barneys where you could find trad Irish musicians dropping in for a jam session after the pubs have closed like we did. The nightclub can be a bit noisy but you can ask for rooms in the second building rather than the main one. They have doubles, singles and twins but they also have triples, quads, and family suites which is really good.

Checking on the prices, it seems very high for weekends (199 euro per double/twin room when i checked for a mid-September night) but reasonable for a weekday 79 euro for the room for a double/twin). The weekday rate was what we paid for the weekend when we were there in 2002. Having said that, I would still recommend the Harcourt if you are there midweek or check for seasonal specials. Breakfast was included in our rate, with a buffet served in the bar. Rooms were modern and an average size, all en suite.

After a week of getting up early, we slept in just because we could! TWe lingered over breakfast, enjoying our pot of tea. It’s a sunny day and we decided to have a walk then take the DART out to Howth at the north end of the line.

We walked to the little bridge across the Grand Canal and turned into Fitzwilliam Square where the house with the most elaborate door "lives". We admired it and walked on, looking for Merrion Square a few streets away. The attraction here is mainly the Oscar Wilde connection. We saw a few lovely old buildings turned into hotels and the American College on the corner. That’s the house where Wilde lived before moving to London.

On that intersection, is Greene’s Bookstore, an establishment of some 200 years standing. There are display bins of books and postcards outside to browse through and inside the shop has several floors lined with old wooden shelves and display tables scattered around. The shop had the kind of atmosphere where you could almost imagine men in stovepipe hats and Victorian whiskers and women in shirtwaist dresses with floor length skirts browsing and climbing the staircase, a leather bound book or two under their arms. We browsed a bit and picked up some bookmarks and postcards then walked across the road to the square.

Just inside the wrought iron fence is a statue of Wilde, dressed in bright colours, languidly lying back and holding his trademark flower against a face twisted in a sardonic smirk. The bright colours are all different kinds of marble. The statue was only erected and dedicated about 5 years ago.

The park was nice but the sun kept dipping behind a cloud and we lost patience waiting for it to beam down through the trees. It just seemed like that photo *needed* sunshine and shadows.

Along the outside of the fence on the North side of the square were works displayed by artists. It’s a good place to set up on the weekends with lots of pedestrians walking past. We walked along the little gallery and then set off to find the DART station. We joined the queue for a return ticket and made our way to the platform. The trains go fairly frequently so we didn’t have long to wait.

Howth is at the last stop. You arrive in an old small train station with a pub called the Bloody Stream underneath! We walked down the block towards the waterfront, consulted a large "you are here" map and walked along the busy road looking for a place for lunch. We did find a little place takeaway but it had a light lunch menu in a little room to one side. It was a bit noisy but we found a table and ordered a sandwich.

Howth is a fishing town and there weren’t a lot of touristy type shops at all. A few postcards outside a newsagent was the extent of it that we saw. It’s a working seaside town with a large marina filled with pleasure craft. It’s a good place for hiking around the outskirts and has a nice sea wall where you can walk out around the harbour. There’s a rocky little island just off the coast here called Ireland’s Eye.

We walked around the seafront and then headed up into the village to find the ruins of Howth Abbey. There was a little cemetery filled with flower covered graves, and the roofless ruins. There’s a great view over the harbour from here. We poked around the grounds for a little while taking pictures and then descended back through the village to the main road again.

The map seemed to indicate that Howth Castle was a bit out of town on the main road so we started walking. There were no signs to which road we should turn in but a sign indicating aTransport Museum so we headed up that way, remembering from the map that they were close to each other. There was a pretty church that we passed and then we saw a stone tower. There was the castle! There were quite old parts, that I believe date from Norman times and some newer parts. However when we were walking around one side, I spied a propane barbeque in a courtyard which seemed to indicate perhaps that someone lived there and that it was private property.

We were getting tired by now so decided to walk back to the train station and go back into the City to find some place to eat. We got off the train at Tara street station and walked down to the river and across the wide O’Connell Street bridge where we stopped to look at some jewelry and leather that a vendor had on display. Up O’Connell Street, where there are many statues of Irish Independence leaders, and lots of shops and a large department store, Clery's.

The General Post Office building is there as well, with its tall pillars, some of which still bear the bullet holes from the 1916 Easter uprising. This is a good shopping district for tourists but we really didn’t spend a lot of time here. By this time we had been out walking all day and were footsore and ready for a rest. You lose your enthusiasm for experiencing the ambience of a place when you can hardly put one foot in front of the other!

We found a fish and chip shop that wasn’t filled up after trying a few larger restaurants first. We sat and had our dinner and a restorative cup of tea. The taxi rank on O’Connell street had a long queue so we ended up near Trinity College, thinking we could get the bus but we waited for about 15 minutes and none of the route numbers that we needed passed by so we walked a little further to the other end of Grafton street. We knew there was a taxi rank at St. Stephen’s Green so we went through Grafton street. We got a taxi and arrived back at the hotel We arranged with the concierge for a taxi to the airport tomorrow morning. After consulting his expertise, we realized the airport shuttle bus wouldn’t be practical and he’s going to get a taxi to come for us about 5:30. URGH!

Back to our room for an early night. It’s odd that some of the nicest hotels we’ve been in had no tea and coffee making things in the rooms! We repacked out suitcases to distribute our clothes and souvenirs.

Carole is flying back to Halifax to day via Heathrow and she has an early flight. It means she’s got to be at the airport by 6! My flight is at 9:00 so since I’d have to be there by 8 latest anyway I figured it was just as easy to go with her when she went and then we could share a taxi.

We had set the clock for something unGodly and you might know, a few of the conventioneers seemed intent on having a party in the hall outside our room. Finally Carole called down to the desk and they sent someone up to ask them to at least keep their doors shut.

The taxi we ordered from the concierge yesterday was even a little early. We dragged ourselves out of bed, checked out and slumped in the back of the taxi. It was still dark out but the cab driver was pleasant and we ended up having a laugh by the time we got to the airport.

There weren’t any restaurants open that early for breakfast but there was a Butler’s chocolate café where we could at least get a cup of tea and a croissant. She went off to her gate and I went looking for the general area mine would be. The flight back to Manchester was lovely. I had made my plans before Carole had decided to join me in Ireland so that's why we had separate arrival and departure flights. I was staying at the Hilton at the airport. I caught the bus into the city Centre, met a couple of my friends for a drink and a meal along Canal Street in the Gay Village called Taurus which is a club at night. It had couches around low tables, a little alcove that could seat about 6 and a few other tables and chairs around. The décor was modern with some interesting sculpture framed on the walls and cool blues and reds and greens covering surfaces. The food was reasonably priced and it was really tasty.

We walked the short distance from there to Manchester Piccadilly train station so i could catch a bus back to the airport and hotel. The end of a trip once again.

On the road again....And bloody early! 6 a.m. came too soon! The day's activities include a stop in Kildare at the Irish National Stud, then a stop to "view" the Rock of Cashel (that means a photo stop), and a drive west to Ennis, where we stay for two nights.

The National Stud is on the site of old Black Abbey, where the monks bred horses for the Crusades, huge, muscled beasts. Horse breeding in this area of the country is an old tradition and Irish thoroughbreds command some of the highest stud fees in the world. The Irish National Stud is run by the government though there are lots of private farms around as well. There are an enormous amount of regulations to the breeding of horses. Artificial insemination is banned and they even test the foals for DNA to prove their parentage to potential buyers.

We had one of the staff walk us around the barns and grounds to see the horses while he explained the history, traditions, and technical aspects of horse breeding. It really was interesting. We saw a couple of foals just born hours before. One mare allowed the door to be open and us to watch as her baby nursed. Another mare, though the door was closed, stood on guard over the foal with a glint in her eye when we peeked through the caged window. Nobody was getting close to that baby! We saw the stallion stables and paddocks and as large as the mares were, the stallions were massive! The neck on the top priced one, was so large and solid that I doubt very much I could get my arms around it, and I don't have short arms.

There is a Japanese garden and another one dedicated to a monk, St. Fiachra and we had time to have a walk around and a coffee or a browse in the gift shop.

We drove for another hour south into County Tipperary to the center of Ireland, all rolling hills to Cashel. The Rock of Cashel was originally a fortress built in the 4c on a 200 foot limestone mound that juts up out of a low flat valley. It was originally a seat of Irish Kings and continually a military establishment but St. Patrick preached from there and created a bishopric in the 5c. We stopped on the highway overlooking the plain and the rock but unless you crossed the busy road, you ended up with the road in your photos. Not a great choice for a photo stop.

Just the same, we were having our lunch stop in the town of Cashel. We scattered to try out several of the different pubs and restaurants that Bill pointed out. Carole and I ended up at Mikey Ryan's, in a building built about 1750-ish. It had several small rooms, brightly painted in yellow. The room we sat in had a huge black iron stove and a basket of peat and wood beside it. The soup urn was on the stove and a hutch full of old china and the dining room cutlery stood against the yellow wall upon which were hung old framed photos and softly glowing copper items. We had soup and a sandwich that were delicious!

After lunch we found the PO for stamps then walked out and around the road that leads out of town. We got a good view of the ruins of the Rock and a good photo from up the footpath.

Back on the bus we traveled north west through Limerick City. There are a lot of poor "travelers" that live in trailers (caravans) on the outskirts of Limerick, and elsewhere around the country but apparently this is a popular stopping point. The part of the city we drove through didn't seem to have anything particularly nice about it, but it's hard to tell just passing through. We stopped across the Shannon river for a photo of King John's Castle which was built around 1210. We also passed St. Mary's Cathedral from around the same era. Can't really say much more about Limerick as we didn't see any more of it that that.

We arrived at the hotel, the Temple Bar Hotel in Ennis. It's a lovely hotel that used to be a nunnery though has been extensively renovated. The bar and bistro serves very good food. The courtyard of the hotel faces the tourist information center. Ennis doesn't seem to be a really old town but that's only relative. It's probably still three-four hundred years old. There are a lot of newer homes and subdivision developments and it's a popular area to live for commuters to Shannon and Limerick.

We are seeing houses painted more pastel and warm hues of greens, blues, yellows and terra cottas dotted with an occasional bright yellow or deep red. A lot of the shop fronts and bar fronts are still painted lively colours in the traditional Irish pub style. There is very little neon that we have noticed even in the cities, where the shops have floodlights over the storefronts instead of glowing signs blinking at you.

We had a drink in the bar and then changed. Our optional (you pay extra) excursion for the evening is a medieval banquet at Bunratty Castle. There has been a castle here since the Norman era but as it's in a very strategic spot, it's been destroyed and rebuilt on 8 or 9 occasions after battles. The Folk Park that's been constructed here is a recreation of an Irish village from about 100 years ago, with cottages, shops and farmhouses and is a working museum with staff in period costume and working using the old traditional methods. The castle has antique furniture from the medieval period and is one of those large square towers seen all over the country. They do banquets as a dinner theatre experience as well.

This is a purpose built attraction to draw in the tourists that land or are leaving from the Shannon international airport, not far away. The castle itself is real enough, and the cottages were brought from other parts of the country so they are authentic. Many people might think it pretty much a tourist trap and it's true, it does cater to busloads of tourists, with two sittings of the banquet a night. It's more of a "show" and it feels very much like a Disney version but it is quite popular. There's even an old pub that has traditional entertainers. I can't tell from any website if you can visit the site without a banquet but I think perhaps you can. The food was ok, the entertainment was chorus of lovely ladies, mostly local students all of whom were well versed in the castle history and could sing passably well. If you're on a bus tour, which we were, and there isn't much else to do, you might want to pay up and go with the group, which is what we did, otherwise, it's a bit pricey and a bit cheesy.

The banquet "experience" went like this: We were led into the castle and up a steep narrow stone spiral staircase to the Great Hall where two court musicians played for us as we sipped honey mead. The harpist and violinist were seated at the front of the room while women clad in velvet gowns decorated with gold brocade mingled among the tourists and chatted with them. The young woman we spoke to said she does this as her summer job while she's at university to become a teacher!

There was then a few songs by the assembled group of women and we were led into the dining area, which used to be the soldier's barrack area. The tables were long with benches. The only implement you had was a sharp knife to add to the authentic feel. You drank your spiced parsnip soup out of the crockery bowl and ate your spare rib appetizer with your fingers. There were finger bowls and you had a bib tied round your neck to use to wipe your hands on. The meat on the ribs was so tender it fell off the bone. The main course was roasted capon, veg and potatoes and dessert was a sponge cake with berries and cream which at least was served with a spoon.

The costumed women served courses, and in between, entertained along with an entertaining butler, an actor of course, with heavy makeup and an obvious wig. But the crowd loved it and the women were remarkable singers although there was one that seemed to have a sour look on her face the entire time. Perhaps she was nervous but I kept wanting to tell her she was going to spoil appetites if she didn't smile once in awhile.

We were invited to take coffee in another room but it was too crowded so we went out to the courtyard where a piper was playing in the twilight. We walked back through the folk village, taking our time though most of the cottages were closed for the day. Tomorrow is a trip up the west coast to the Cliffs of Moher, around Galway Bay and up into Connemara.

We had breakfast with a lovely couple from Alabama. The bus left a little late, all day it seemed. There was always someone that kept us waiting and invariably one of the group of women traveling together from NYC. They work together in a hospital and they were astonishing shoppers! That's usually why they were late!

We drove west towards the Atlantic coast under sunny skies. Really lucky because the view of the 600' high Cliffs of Moher on Liscannon Bay would have been disappointing under cloudy foggy skies. We were the first bus there, even before the visitor center was open so it wasn't crowded at all. The cliffs are a spectacular sight, with the rock formations carved by millennia of weather and water, thousands of sea birds drifting and perching on the ridges and caves and the cool, fresh breeze briskly whipping our hair as we wandered around the viewing platform or climbed the stairs to O'Brien's Tower. You could see the Aran Islands off the coast.

From there we drove Northwest into the Burren, (pronounced Barren), a rocky limestone plateau with huge hills of exposed rock overlooking Galway Bay. Farming is nearly impossible here though there are cattle dotting the lower hills. There are herds of feral goats and we saw a few running down the side of a hill. There are stone fences crisscrossing the landscape, these made only by piling the stones with no kind of cement, water or sand to secure them. We stopped at the top of Corkscrew Hill, aptly named, for a photo shoot. What a view! The road downhill turned around upon itself so sharply you thought you would see your own taillights coming round the bends. I don't know how, but Alex maneuvered that bus down it as easily,as if he was driving a straight motorway.

The Burren, in County Clare, is a protected environmental and conservation area. In summer there are a lot of wild flowers including wild orchids. We drove through some wild and remote areas dotted with occasional villages including one, Lisdoonvarna, that is famous for matchmaking! Irish farmers are notorious bachelors and many of the local women leave the area for education and jobs, so the farmers living at home only have their mothers to tend to them and they rely on matchmakers quite often to find a wife! Lisdoonvarna has a matchmaking festival every September for potential mates to meet up!

We drove down around Galway Bay where there were more tower ruins and old antique boats moored on the low tidal muddy banks. The boats are small fishing boats with red sails called Galway Hookers! There's excellent salmon fishing in this region and in fact it was a village known for salmon fishing called Claddagh where the famous Irish symbol was created. That's the heart held by two hands and topped with a crown symbolizing love and loyalty. It's very commonly used as a wedding band in Ireland.

Galway city was first settled by 14 French-Norman families, later referred to as the 14 Tribes of Galway. Some of the family names that you still see on businesses, streets and monuments are Joyce, Lynch and Burke. We drove around Galway, and after a coffee break, headed up into the Connemara region, famous for it's marble. We drove on a narrow road across some wild peat bogs. Peat is still cut and dried for fuel in stoves but more and more often it's done on commercial farms.

The marble factory we visited is in a village called Moycullen. There is a display of all the deep colours of marble that has been quarried in the region over the years, black, shades of green and red. It's some of the hardest marble in the world and was used for construction mainly. The quarries are nearly depleted and only the green is still obtainable in small quantities but the upsurge of using marble in giftware and jewelry has given the quarries that remain new life. They also mind amethyst here.

Back to Galway for our lunch break. Oysters are famed here but we decided to walk down the pedestrian shopping street in search of, first, a toilet, and second, a takeaway sandwich. We went into the Brown Thomas department store but there was no public washrooms. The woman in the accounts office took pity on us and let us use the staff toilet! We found a cafe a little further on and bought sandwiches and a drink and walked back to the spot where we were to meet the bus later, by a park, to eat in the sunshine. The park was full of young people enjoying the warm weather. There's a university in Galway and a lovely cathedral. I didn't see that much of the city but I got a very pleasing impression and it's a place I'd like to spend a day or two exploring further.

Our afternoon stop was in the farmlands of the county at Rathbaun Farm which does agri-tourism as a way to boost their income. Many of the farms here in County Galway are livestock because the ground doesn't really support crops. This farm contains a 150 year old thatched roof farmhouse with a tea room where they will serve you tea, coffee and scones after a little tour. Finton Connolly was our host and talked to us about modern sheep farming. This farm makes its money from the sale of lamb mainly to France though they've also got cattle as well. Older ewes and rams are slaughtered for mutton after 5 or 6 years. We saw several breeds of sheep in a small barn, several of which had young lambs. The sheepdog, a border collie named Buff, was let loose in a paddock to worry 5 or 6 sheep around in clusters.

Contrary to the sheepdog we saw in Scotland, this dog was not trained with whistles. He brings the sheep to wherever his master is standing. The whistle trained dogs are for selling so it doesn't matter what language you use, they will always understand the whistle signals. It's amazing to watch the dog duck her head down and give the sheep steady eye contact that seems to unnerve them to the point of huddling and clattering together en masse away from the dog in the direction she wants them to go. Finton later sheared a struggling sheep, who was concerned for her lamb which was skipping around the barn being herded by the dog who was still out of her pen. The sheep was a shaggy one and by the time he was even half way done, it looked like he was handling a bag of rags, with only four skinny black legs waving about to give any hint that there was a living thing underneath it all.

We were encouraged to look through the older part of the house where there was a cozy peat fire burning in the hearth and we took lots of photos by the lovely old whitewashed cottage and in the garden outside. The thatch in most of Ireland is made of river reed.

We got back to Ennis about 5. Carole wanted a rest so I shopped for postcards in the tourist information shop and walked down the High Street to the River Fergus where I had spied a few good spots from the bus to take pictures. There are ruins of an old friary there and a cathedral. I took some really pretty pictures although one of them ended up with a sun flare spot in it. I also found a store that had lots of china and gifts and they took the tax off there and shipped it for you. They were open until 7 so I went back to give Carole the heads up and brought her back. She found lots of things she wanted and although I wasn't planning to get anything, I found a Waterford Crystal thatch cottage that's about 4 or 5 inches long and 2 or 3 high. It's exquisite and I had to have it. Since I bought that, I figured I might as well get that Royal Tara china cup I had spied and a Stephen Pearce bowl.

We had it all shipped together but that meant it had to be paid for together. They suggested a restaurant when we asked but when we found it, it was closed, Tuesday being one of it's days to shut early. Oh well. We ended up back at the bar in the hotel where I really enjoyed a huge bowl of mussels and seafood chowder stuffed with tender bits of salmon and shellfish.

It was a bit gloomy this morning and all day it was hazy with the sun breaking through now and then which was a pity for the views around the Ring of Kerry but it wasn't too bad. We caught the 9 a.m.ferry across the Shannon estuary. We drove into North Kerry from where the landscape was flat, boggy and uninspiring. Or perhaps it was the weather. The western part of the Kerry Mountains is called the McGillicuddy Reeks and we drove up into the beginning of the range on the way to our first stop, Tralee. We were due to go to the Kerry County museum complete with a medieval sight, sound and smell effects only the staff are on strike!

We were taken to a local windmill instead in Blennerville. Which wasn't working due to some maintenance problems. They had a video presentation on the restoration and had an emigration exhibition and we were invited to examine the inside of the windmill. The windmill was built in 1780 and fell out of use in 1850, restored in the 1980s. It is now the only working windmill in Ireland and still mills flour but just for demonstrations.

We were on a time constraint and I wasn't overly interested. Pressed for time seemed to be the order of the day, we ended up being rushed every time we got off the bus! Lunch break was only 40 minutes! Not all bus tours are like that, though.

Into the mountains and through a little town called Killorglin which has a Puck Festival every summer celebrating the goats of Kerry. There's even a statue of a wild horned goat with a crown on his head in the town center. They bring a wild billygoat down from the hills and crown him to preside over the weekend's festivities. Why? Two theories according to Bill. One was that a herd of goats warned the town of an impending dawn raid by Oliver Cromwell's men and the other has the goat revered as a holy animal by pagans.

We entered the Ring of Kerry trail that starts at Dingle Bay and weaves its way along the sandstone mountains, sometimes along the bays and inland around the Iveragh Peninsula. The views reminded me of the Scottish Highlands. We had a photo stop over Dingle Bay and lunch at one little bar about half way around. The narrow road was originally built for the military in the mid 17c I did notice, looking straight down over the edge of one stop, a lot of litter. Too bad people can't respect these places.

The sun was out at our lunch stop but was gone again when we continued. We had another stop near the end of the trail and then started down the mountains into the Killarney National Park, a large natural area of lakes and forest. We stopped at a lovely lookoff over the Killarney Lakes called "Ladies' View" named in honour of Queen Victoria's ladies in waiting.

We were offered the chance to have a Jaunting Car ride in Killarney (optional, you pay extra). This is a horse drawn buggy that seats 6. Most decided it would be fun since it looked as if the sun was emerging and it was a change from the bus. The ride took us around part of the National park.

We rode along the street to get to the park entrance. There was lots of trees, fresh air, birdsong. The drivers, called "Jarvies", point out things of interest, crack jokes and stop so we could take photos. It took over an hour to get to our meeting spot back in the town and we enjoyed it.

The Brandon Hotel in Tralee is very, very nice. Dinner was very good too and we sat at large tables of 8 which was nice until the conversation turned to the politics of the Middle East. I didn't have much to add and Carole was feeling a bit under the weather so we politely excused ourselves.

The Ring of Kerry was very scenic though we had hoped for better weather. I've heard the Dingle Peninsula is spectacular but the road is not suitable for the tour busses. We took a lot of photos out the window and at our stops. We didn't see much of Killarney which seems to focus mainly on the tourism industry which is so important to the economy of Ireland. We could have done without the windmill visit which would have given us a bit more time at our stops but that's the nature of tours sometimes.

The next day, weather not too bad but It's supposed to cloud over later and rain. This is our shopping day, or morning, that Bill has been on about all week, reminding us that the huge woolen mill shop will have the best prices for things we’d want to get. Considering the guide gets a percentage of purchases when we stop at most places like factories and visitor centers, the cut he gets from Blarney must be better than most. Rose told me that even she, as a taxi driver, will get a percentage or discount if she takes a customer there.

We drove across the south interior of Ireland through the Kerry Mountains, farmlands and the rolling patch-worked hills. We arrived in Blarney at 10:00 as expected. This was the longest stop of the tour, at 2.5 hours during which we were expected to get lunch as well. If anyone wanted to visit Blarney Castle and kiss the stone of eloquence they should allow 3/4 hour at least to walk through the park, climb the staircase and wait in the queue. All I wanted was a photo of the castle but you have to pay to get into the grounds along with the castle visit. We didn’t bother. I had no interest in kissing a piece of rock that millions of tourists had also laid their lips on.

Carole walked back to the Woolen Mill. I decided to see if I could get a photo of the castle in the distance from some vantage point. I crossed a small river or brook and walked along a brick wall. Over top of the wall, at one break in the vegetation behind it, I could stretch up and see the castle in the distance and with the tree branches framing it, it actually turned into a lovely photo.

I walked back towards the town and spotted a little cemetery so I had a look in there at the stones. There are a lot of Celtic crosses in cemeteries in Ireland. We’ve driven by some that seemed to contain nothing but!

Over to the woolen mill. The shop really is large, on two floors. Most of the wool and woven clothing is on the upper floor along with the book and music section. The ground floor has china, crystal, linen, some clothing, souvenirs, edibles and football strips. I ran into Carole who had already bought, paid for and shipped the pricey stuff. Now she was in search of general items.

I started to find a few things i liked and I realized I had better find a hand basket. The prices did seem reasonable, certainly no more expensive than some of the shops we’d been in outside of Dublin. I spent far more than I expected even with the 14% you get reduced for the tax and I have no idea where it’s all going to fit in my cases!

We had lunch in the complex which also houses a hotel, bar and cafeteria. The complex was in fact a mill at one time and there are artifacts around the grounds and in the stone buildings.

You should have seen the number of shopping bags that were carried back on board the bus! That didn’t count the stuff quite a few people had shipped! Everyone chattered amongst themselves, showing and telling about their treasures and bargains while we made our way over to the east and then north through Cork City and the country side heading north along the coast through some pretty towns along the route to Waterford.

After our stop at Blarney we headed north. Our included visit this afternoon was to the Waterford Crystal factory where we will get a tour. This was actually a very interesting stop. We were shown a short video. The presentation ended with a replica of the Millenium crystal ball from NYC descending in front of a black screen with a city skyline behind it. Impressive with the lights flashing in patterns and colours and ending in full brilliance.

We then headed into the factory proper. Here then is a condensed version of Waterford Crystal: It was founded in 1783 by brothers George and William Penrose. The factory has been at the present location, on the edge of town since 1971 and employs 1600. The craftsmen have a minimum 5 years apprenticeship and normally 3 more for the masters in the various fields of glass blowing and cutting and engravers do 3 years at a local cottage before training for 10 more. Crystal is made from silica sand, potash and litharge and is heated to a molten state in gas ovens to 1400 degrees. The first room was where the ovens are. Most of the blowers and cutters seem to be men, and the guide said it wasn’t a reflection on women, it’s just that women rarely seem to choose this field.

The molten crystal is pulled out of the oven in a blob, the size depending on what will be the end result. The blowers all know exactly how much to pull out of the fire for what they are making. It's on the end of a 5 foot long metal rod. It’s shaped using wooden tools soaked in cold water to gently give it a starting point. It is then lowered into a wooden mold below the feet of the men. They blow through the long tube and the molten crystal expands to the shape of the mold. When it comes out of the mold it now looks like glass and it’s smoothed and sanded lightly. It's broken off the tube and laid on a conveyer belt. The crystal is cooled for up to two days and then checked for flaws. If there is the slightest mark, it’s smashed and melted down again.

We saw the crystal shells marked with a grid pattern and then watched some of the cutters grind the classic Waterford patterns into bowls and glasses on a diamond tipped wheel using the grids as a guideline. The actual patterns are not marked on the glass unless it’s a special one of a kind or limited edition design. These are all master craftsmen that have had to memorize all the 60 or 70 standard patterns during their training. We saw another room where the carvers work on solid pieces like figurines (and cottages!). They create a clay model for these as a guideline. The wheels used to carve the solid pieces are stone with small diamond tipped ones for the finer detail work.

We saw the engraving room. This kind of engraving comes out looking like frosted inset sections etched into the crystal. Engraving is the most time consuming and difficult of all the jobs. The artisans make their own copper tipped tools, softer than diamond tipped. One tool we saw was made from a copper coin! The room wasn’t brightly lit overhead though each work station had good spot lights. We then had a more personal demonstration from a veteran cutter who talked to us and answered questions about his career and the working conditions and shifts.

We had a half hour or so in the showroom and gallery which was interesting. They had replicas of some of the most spectacular pieces like a lot of the trophies for world famous tournaments such as the World Cup, the Super bowl and the PGA golf. We saw a large chess piece that stood about 4 foot high and outside the gallery was a full size crystal mailbox and a full size crystal grandfather clock! Wow! It was quite a fascinating visit.

While we were in there, Alec and Bill took the luggage to the hotel in Waterford, the Quality Marina which is, as the name implies on the waterfront by the marina. It looked like a city with some interesting spots to explore, just judging from the drive through. We had a nice view from our hotel room over an inlet on the city side of the hotel. We had signed up for a visit to an old country pub before dinner tonight so there was only time to change and freshen up with a cup of tea before we left.

We drove to Kilmeaden where the Cozy Thatch pub was. It has been voted tops in an annual Irish Heritage Pub of the Year contest several times going by the plaques displayed This is a low white thatched roof building, some of which dates to 1475. It was purchased by a family called Horton in 1780 and turned into a public house and it’s never been sold since, having passed down through the generations. It has two fireplaces burning peat, and is in an L shape. The shorter section of the room is painted deep pink, the rest in white with dark wood and beams., there’s an open bit at one end above, a loft of sorts. The pub also doubled as the local funeral parlour for the village soon after it was established until 1969 when the government passed a law forbidding wakes in pubs. In the room at the back where the deceased would be laid out is a large bed that dates before the Horton family bought the building (because it was built inside the room and too big to get out of the house with the previous owners) and family and friends would gather here to wake the dead. Having the wake in a pub just solved both of the pressing needs. The Irish have always celebrated the life of the deceased with memories, music and drink. Only seems convenient to have the two under one roof!

The family that owns the pub (the publican’s mother was a Horton) also brews their own lager on the premises and lives there as well. We sat down in groups and ordered the first of our two drinks that came along with the price of this "optional" excursion. I opted for the local lager and it was very nice! We were then entertained by a singer called Tommy Commerford who does this for all the tours I believe. He was witty, a good singer and did all the traditional tunes so that everyone could sing along which we did. He would pause briefly if someone was about to take his picture and smile for the camera. A real showman! He did an excellent a capella version of Danny Boy that I thought was wonderful in spite of the fact that I'm not that fond of the song. We enjoyed the music, the atmosphere and the drinks. I really like the smell of the peat fire though I’m not sure I could describe it. It’s a pungent aroma but not quite like a fragrant hard wood or pipe tobacco. It burns hot and for a long time too apparently.

We arrived back at the hotel for about 8 for dinner. There was another tour group from Trafalgar there just on the beginning of their tour. Dinner was fine, we were seated at long tables which to me makes it feel more like a convention or something. I prefer the smaller tables of 4 or 6 or even 8 where it feels a bit more private.

Our last day on the bus. Breakfast wasn’t great. No choice. They slapped down a plate of egg, bacon, etc., were late with the toast and it felt very like a conveyer belt to us. Let’s get going. We drove through the old part of Waterford past Reginald’s Tower, which was built originally by the Vikings. The city center of Waterford looks very much like most Irish cities architecturally. We headed out into the country county roads of County Wexford, past lots of yellow gorse brush streaking the green hills. We heard about rebellion in 1798 led by Father Murphy, an insurrection by the Catholics trying to gain rights inspired by the French Revolution 20 years before that. Didn’t work. The rebellion was brutally put down by the British.

Our first stop today is Avoca, in the Avoca Vale, a pretty valley about 2 hours from Waterford. The reason for the stop is a demo at one of the oldest hand weaving mills still functioning in Ireland. Avoca is also recently famed as the location of exterior filming for the series Ballykissangel and when Carole heard that her eyes lit up! We decided to spend our time in the village.

We ascertained our departure time then trotted into town. First the church. The name is Saints Patrick and Mary. It’s a very pretty stone church and chapter house with a little yard, stone wall and wrought iron fence. There’s a lovely gothic peaked door as well. Down the road a little further there are a few small shops along side a row of two storey houses painted yellows and oranges and pinks.

And there’s the pub! Fitzgerald’s, where a lot of the action in the show takes place. There were very few people around since most of our group stayed at the mill. We each posed for a photo on the benches in front of the bright yellow and blue pub and walked down by the river to see the stone bridge. We looked in a couple of souvenir shops as well. On the way back we passed one building that had a sign on it that proclaimed, in spite of it’s relatively small size, that it was not only the law courts, but also the computer learning center, library, AND the tourist information center! Necessity etc. A final photo of the church and back to the mill complex on the river.

The clouds began to gather and we drove under darkening skies through the north part of County Wicklow where the mossy-trunked trees were tall and close to the road, their overhanging branches forming a canopy over the road. Or it would have if the leaves had been in full bloom. Probably looks really pretty in summer with the sun streaming through.

Rain spit on the bus windows as we arrived at the Glendalough visitor center. Glendalough, which means the Valley of the lakes, was the site of a monastery founded by St. Kevin nearly 1400 years ago. It was used for quite a few centuries before it fell into disuse and ruin. There are roofless buildings and a round tower and the remains of a kitchen building along side the monks’ cemetery.

We saw a short video in a room that I found very cold and drafty and by the time our walking tour was to start, the rain was coming down lightly but steadily. I had neither hood nor umbrella so I decided to skip it. I looked around the visitor center and went across the car park to the hotel in the village where we were going to have our lunch break. A few people from the tour had already gone straight there. Had I known I would have joined them earlier. There was a gas fire burning and and empty table next to it. Lunch, hot tea and a hot apple crumble with custard for desert which I was just getting ready to eat when the rest of the group returned. Carole joined me and ordered lunch while I toasted myself on the fire and my tongue on the hot custard and heard about the walking tour which did sound quite interesting.

This is our last stop before Dublin. We drove out of the bad weather and through some pretty valleys on our way to Dublin. The sky was clear and blue by the time we reached our hotel, the Burlington. This hotel is not far from the Grand Canal in southeast Dublin in the Ballsbridge area, within walking distance of the city center. We have booked an extra night here as we’re not flying out until Sunday.

Carole wanted a rest but I had lots of energy and I wanted to go for a walk. I walked across the Canal and ended up on Bagot Street, which seemed to have a lot of shops. While walking I spotted a green antique freestanding letterbox, the kind you would have outside your own house for mail delivery, not the kind the post office collects mail in. The post boxes in Ireland are green, by the way, not red as in the UK. Anyway, the letter box was standing outside a small shop absolutely packed with …. Stuff! Some of it antique, some of it collectible, some of it memorabilia. I spent 20 minutes in there just looking at the eclectic assortment on shelves, tables and hung on walls.

I continued walking. Found Fitzwilliam square in the Georgian part of Dublin and gawped at some gorgeous architecture. Dublin is famous for it’s decorated and painted doors with their fan lights above and iron railing decorations on balconies and window dressing. The most elaborate door is black but has windows and a fan light that seems to have iron and wood work that looks like white lace covering it and ivy covering the brick surrounding the doorway.

Further down the road I realized I was at St. Stephen’s Green. I could see the glass enclosed shopping center on the far corner of the park. I sought out a camera store on Grafton street to replace the lens cap that seems to have gone walkabout today. I ended up in a cab back to the hotel a bit later.

We have signed up for the drive along Dublin Bay to a nice restaurant. We left early but the traffic was really heavy leaving the city. We finally get off the main road and followed the one that follows the waterfront through Dun Laoughaire, formerly called "Kingstown", where the ferries dock from the UK. Sandy Cove is our stop, just past DL. There’s a martello tower at the end of that cove where James Joyce lived and wrote Ulysses. It’s a museum now apparently. The restaurant was a modern décor. We had a choice of three on a set menu for all courses. I forget what I had as a starter some kind of pasta I think, but the main course I chose was sea bass, first time trying it and it was melt in your mouth good! There was a woman playing the piano during our meal and she took requests. The sun was starting to go down when we left there, which made the view across the bay glow with the last bright light of the day.

The pot of gold...

Bill never mentioned leprechauns all week. This afternoon, one of the group asked him why. He delayed answering so long that I imagined he must be thinking "Damn, and I nearly got through the tour without someone bringing that up!" Bill told us that the word "Leprechaun" means "little people" where are shoe makers or cobblers. The origins are hazy but one theory goes that when the tall, dark, warlike and aggressive Celts invaded, the natives were small, peaceful folk who lived in ring forts which probably became the fairy rings of legend. These people seemed to disappear at will through perhaps they just fled the intimidating invaders. The cute little leprechauns we see were invented for the English tourists and it just got out of hand. Now they are out of fashion and considered tacky, Bill informed us. I agree. Ireland to me is not the cartoon pot of gold and frisky, naughty little men in green coats. It's a place of Celtic origins, of shamrocks and a people who are easy going, traditional and open and friendly. And the beer ain't bad either!