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At New Ross

To Waterford and firstly the Waterford Crystal factory, then over the road to the totally magnificent medieval History Museum. Well presented, lots of really old documents and items, interesting information from talkative "guides" partly acting in period. Irish history is totally intriguing and slowly being revealed to someone who knew zero about it. Rain started so slowed us down, then on to Dunmore East opposite the Hook, a nice quiet little town, again no tourists, then on to Tramore which looks like the Irish Blackpool  on a slightly smaller scale, then winding back home to the Ferry House.

The 25th August 1170 marriage of Strongbow and Aoife was at the nearby church, long replaced by the current stucture.......



At the Waterford factory, here are some of the wooden moulds used for short run glass shaping. The fellow in the background has a constant job replacing them as they last for maybe 10 items. Cast iron moulds are used for more heavily used designs......



A bit of blowing and a bit of pre-forming before the hot glass is shaped in the mould........



Starting the glass cutting, the pen lines are used as guides as the cuts are mostly diagonals.......



Here's how one bowl looks near the end of cutting, various designs but mostly short run trophies and special orders are done in Waterford, the bulk of the regular stuff comes from various factories in Europe......



Over the road is the Medieval History museum and here is one prize exhibit, the Christ Church vestments from 1460, the only surviving medieval vestments in Europe, surviving all the religious ructions by being hidden for 123 years under the floor paving of the church. A very dimly lit room to stop them fading further, they have real gold threads.......



Historic documents galore, an amazing museum........



Now the beach at Dunmore East, a bit bleak today........



A bunch of thatched cottages at Dunmore east......



Dunmore East harbour.....



Many miles away across the water is the Hook Head lighthouse, a crop from a telephoto shot,  so a bit lacking in detail.....



Kite surfers at Tramore, very windy so they were often lifting many feet out of the water.......



Back home again to Ferry House, this is the common area for guests to make meals or watch TV.......