Ireland: Day 7: If It's Wednesday It Must Be...Dublin?

In the showroom: Waterford napkin rings

Today started off great: breakfast in the castle conservatory with a monarch butterfly flitting from table to table so perfectly it was almost as if he was mechanically engineered by Walt Disney. We made a reservation for afternoon tea and were off to the city to take the Waterford tour.

The Waterford company has been in existence since the 1700s (minus 100 years in the 1800s when they went bankrupt) and also minus six months in 2009 when they went into receivership. They were bought by WWRD (Waterford, Wedgewood and Royal Doulton) a leading or the leading luxury manufacturing company in the world and opened a new visitor's center and factory tour this past June. Waterford City is the oldest city in Europe after Paris and London having been discovered and settled by the Vikings in 914 A.D.

Waterford vase

On the tour, we saw the glass designer's sketches, molds, glass being blown, shaped and then cut. There is so much workmanship involved in even one piece that it's easy to see why Waterford costs so much. Today they were preparing the engraved trophies for the People's Choice Awards probably held later this year. They also had the Pebble Beach Golf winner's trophy ready to be shipped, probably the closest any of us would ever get to it! Pretty elaborate stuff.

After the factory tour we planned to take a walking tour of the historical part of Waterford city but as we sat waiting for it to begin my husband got a call from the Castle staff. Apparently we were only booked for one night and this lord and lady's mini-fortnight was coming to a quick and rather embarassing  end! And it was our mistake, we really thought we were there for two nights.

Who's that in the turret?

Where was our Jeeves? Shouldn't he have alerted us? I couldn't be sure but I thought I saw him and the 'wenches' snickering behind the leaded glass windows from the castle turrets as we hurriedly took our leave. Tea was off! Dinner in the 'Fitzgerald' was not to be.... our castle life was over and we set out for Dublin.  

Three hours later we pulled up in front of the Davenport Hotel on Merrion Square in the heart of Dublin. I won't go into detail but this lady was a bit distressed! The staff was great though and upgraded our room and threw in free Internet service. I don't like to do it but sometimes it pays to complain!

Tomorrow we set out  to discover some details about our families at the Heritage Center.

Seriously, the Fitzgerald Room was totally overrated!