The Waterford Chrystal Factory took us through the entire process of making a piece of chrystal from sand/ash/lead, through the mold, blowing, marking cutting and polishing. Very engaging process to watch and the factory there is huge. Every piece is hand made REALLY.
Beautiful drive through Cork by way of a cemetery. We took photos of the chapel and headstones. The info on headstones here is different -- includes name, died on date, age at death and address. A few times we even saw cause of death like 'unexpected illness' or 'surprising catastrophe' .... Lots of plastic and silk flowers -- some under glass. Celtic crosses on many stones as a topper.
Then on to the Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone. I love this castle because it is medieval -- never restored to 19th century use. We tromped up the circular staircase just like the knights and lords and ladies and servants would have done centuries ago. We saw bedrooms and the kitchen and hearths, the dining hall and great room. There was no flooring across the center of the castle but you could imagine how it all worked. Run of the mill castles are not all as huge as one might imagine, but are still very impressive.
The Blarney Stone is at the top of the castle and the roof is long gone as well. When I rounded the corner out of the stair well, to go around the ledge o get to the stone, a pidgeon flew up at me and I screamed like I was dying. I think everone on the ledge thought I had gone over the edge, but Jay apologized for me as I tried to pull myself together. So, trying to recover some sense of dignity, I held on to the rail and followed around to to kiss the Blarney Stone and didn't really look at how this entire exercise would go. OMG...it was so scary because you have to lie down on your back and they lower you about three feet (it seems) to reach the place where you are supposed to kiss. All this while, you can only see the green grass about 7 stories beneath you. I was still rattled from the bird incident, Jay isn't fond of heights anyway and the castle worker guy was in a big hurry, but I kissed that darn stone and now I shall be eloquent the rest of my life. I am counting on this to help me finish comps and write my dissertation. I wonder what people have to do for knowledge and wisdom? I think I will just hope and pray for those things -- I am sure not risking my life again in the next couple of days.
More later. Hope this isn't too boring. We are loving it here!
1 comment:
Not boring at all. I'm loving reading your comments. Went to the library and checked out TRINITY. Have never read it and was wanting something for summer. Keep it up!
Post a Comment