The Waterford Crystal Factory. We had the most interesting time. I thought I knew something about Waterford Crystal . I didn't. I thought I would like to buy a piece of Waterford Crystal . I didn't.
I booked the tour tickets on line - when we got there we were the only ones at the 9:50 am tour. It was our guide, David, first tour of the day. Right behind us was a group off of a tour bus.
Here we are next to the largest Waterford Crystal champagne flute in the world. The display of Crystal in Waterford is the largest display of such in the world
We got to see master tradesmen hand crafting the Crystal. It takes 8 years of training to be a master tradesman. The pieces are all carved freehand, if they are imperfect they are tossed into the recycle bin . The Crystal is made from silica sand, potash and lead- all heated to liquid form.
It is amazing precision work
Here Sid is holding the Waterford Crystal football that is awarded to each player on the winning team of the CFL ( who knew)
In this photo I am holding one of the 60 Peoples Choice Awards being handcrafted at the moment for the 2016 awards. Because it was just the two of us we were very fortunate to take these photos. In my imagination I rehearsed my acceptance speech.
'Thank you -thank you very much. The people are always right ( I borrowed this line from the heaved Steve speech from last night in his ' I can't believe you dumped me speech')...I'd like to thank my family...
This is the 2016 trophy being crafted for the Phoenix Open
An excellent tour for sure
In the afternoon we drove to Kilkenny. For the past 2 days Sid has been driving on 4 lane divided highways (way boring). The passing land in on the right!
The beginning of autumn - so different than the 50 shades of grey we have at home.
The Kilkenny Castle - nice to look at but we didn't do a tour
The streets of Kilkenny
The doors of Kilkenny
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