Thursday 24 February 2000
Highlights: Watching a Waterford Crystal Vase being made.

On our way to Limerick we stopped off at Waterford and spent the day exploring.  Like most ancient cities Waterford at one time was walled but little remains of this wall.  Reginald’s Tower still exists but they were unfortunately working on it so we could only view from the outside.

What Waterford is most famous for is Waterford Crystal Company who not only make superb crystal objects but also many of the sporting worlds trophies like the Cricket World Cup and the Tennis Grand Slam.  I’m sure the family would like a gift from Waterford, maybe when I’m a millionaire 🙂

We did a tour of the company which was amazing how they make the crystals, I mean it’s still 98% manually done.  The makers are true artists, in fact the engravers often make their own patterns.  It takes about ten years to master just one of the skills required.  I now understand why they cost so much.

We got into Limerick just before midnight.