The road to Waterford

On Saturday we went to Waterford just to get out of house for a while. It's about a 45 minute drive, of which I drove the whole way. Well, I drove until we actually got to Waterford and then Orrin, who either didn't know we had a map or didn't relaize his role as navigator, took over driving. It's only the third time I've driven in Ireland. I find it very tricky, because the roads are narrow, you drive on the left, and we have a manual transmission so you also have to shift with your left. We made it there, and I did well enough that I was *allowed* to drive back.

While in Waterford we went to the crystal factory. I don't really recommend it. It was ok, and sort of made you appreciate the exhorbinant prices of the pieces seeing all the work that goes into it- everything from blowing, molding, cutting, engraving, is done by hand. And yet, seeing a single goblet sell for 167 euros- well we certainly didn't leave with any crystal in our boot.

We ate lunch at an extremely yummy vegetarian restaurant, called Haricot's Whole Food. And Orrin had this delicious tomato/curry/veg/nut stuff called nut roast. I'd make the drive just for that.

Next was a walking tour of the medival city. It turned out it was a private tour, for just the three of us. The guide was really good. I guess he'd been doing it for 15 years, so he'd perfected every joke, but it was still really informative and entertaining. The most amazing fact- John Roberts, the architect who designed both the Catholic and Protestant catherdrals in Waterford, and his wife Susannah, had 22 children. This was in the late 1700's. I can't imagine a woman having 22 babies. And amazingly, both John and Susannah lived to be 83 years old. Just goes to show, it's not bad for you..... building catherdrals. (guide's joke, not mine)

The last stop was the Waterford Treasures museum, which housed loads of artifacts from the city, from Viking times up to the present. It's a really well done museum, maybe a little dry, or maybe we were just getting tired, and had a tired baby with us.

Then we all came home and took a bath. The end.