Waterford

August 15th—We rented the car for 2 days so that we could go exploring Ireland over the weekend. Our first stop…where else, but Waterford! We left the apartment about 9:30 this morning and headed south of Dublin. We followed the wonderful GPS all the way to the Waterford Visitor Center where we arrived right at noon. We had heard that the factory in Waterford had closed down for good and that was quickly confirmed by the Information desk. Apparently, an American investment firm has bought the company, primarily for their brand. The factory had been in decline for some years and they shut it down causing the remaining 600 people to lose their jobs (down from a high of 3000 workers). The people of Waterford aren’t sure if the factory will ever open back up again. That is very unfortunate for the city, but the Waterford Visitor Center was still open. We walked around the center looking at the magnificent crystal pieces and saw a short video on the making of the crystal. Then, we ate lunch at the cafeteria right there before doing any shopping. After lunch, we went into the shop and really enjoyed our time. By the time we finished up in Waterford, it was a little after 2:00 so we decided to drive an hour to Cashel to see the Rock of Cashel. We took a lot of what we would call backroads. They were very narrow roads with a lot of trees/bushes lining them; no shoulders on the roads. We made it to Cashel about 3:30 and it was very easy to find because the Rock of Cashel towers over the town. We made our way up to it and went inside. It was definitely neat to see it. It can basically be described as the ruins of a castle and cathedral that sits up on a hill (the Rock of Cashel) overlooking the area. It was something different for us to experience and the kids enjoyed rolling in the grass down the hill (It took Austin 24 rolls to go from top to bottom; Abby 21 rolls). From the Rock of Cashel, we walked down into the town of Cashel and got a snack at a bakery before heading back to Dublin. We left Cashel close to 6:00 and arrived back at the apartment close to 8:00. The kids quickly took baths while I prepared their dinner. They ate their dinner and went to bed. It was a great day of exploring Ireland in the car.