Waterford Ways & Corky Days

July 27-30, 2013

Viking Triangle in Waterford, IE

                                        

The Munster province in southern Ireland is poetically known as the kingdom of art and music; therefore it was no surprise that Waterford Crystal comes from here.  I had high hopes of bringing home a piece of Waterford crystal, that is until we visited the showroom.  The crystal display room was glowing and full of lots of things we will never be able to afford.

Checkout that price tag

I felt like a queen sitting at the vanity made completely of Waterford crystal with a royal price tag of 50,000 Euros.  Ross was enamored with the College Championship football.  The cheapest thing we saw was a 5x7 picture frame for 70 Euro, needless to say we did not purchase anything but it sure was pretty to look at. 

Near the Harbor in Waterford

                     

For the night we found a cozy cliff side caravan park.  This location seemed to be a popular one so it was good we arrived early to claim our spot.  After setting up camp we explored the cliffs, watched the fishermen anchored to the rocks, and enjoyed a ham and cheese sandwich for dinner. 

Over the next few days we lolly gagged through the countryside which was very relaxing.  The scenery is overwhelming causing us to travel slowly; stopping often to take in the views. The mountains look like earth covered in carpet.  When the wind blows we saw different hues of green over the land, like when you swipe velvet. 

Ross Castle

 In Killarney we toured Ross castle even though we felt a little castled out.  I told myself if we found a castle that shared my name I would want to see it too.  It was a small castle with beautiful views overlooking a lake.  Too bad it was a rainy cold day or we would have rented the paddle boats. 

Lake at Ross Castle

Amazing hand carved wood chair in Killarney

As we made our way through county Cork toward Ardigole Ross saw a low lying waterfall. He quickly pulled off the road and asked me if I wanted to take a dip.  I thought why not we needed to bath anyway and it would be nice to get out of the Kangoo and play.  We put on our bathing suits, packed our soap and towels, and headed toward the falls. 

The water was cold yet refreshing! Ross found the perfect bowl just at the edge of the falls for us to sit in while we washed up. The bowl was deep with soft squishy algae that lined the bottom making a comfortable surface to sit on.







As I washed my hair I laid back in the bathing bowl and let the rushing water rinse my hair. It felt just as relaxing as when they wash it in the salon.  

After washing up we decided to explore a bit. Ross took a few steps but his sandals got stuck to the suction cup like algae and before he could do anything about it, his sandal was gone.  Luckily it floats, which made him want to go find it.






 He climbed down three levels of falls into the rapids. I began to worry because he had been gone 30 minutes so I started screaming his name.  The rapids were too loud so he did not hear me but a few moments later he pops his head over a large boulder with the sandal in hand like a victory flag.

Healy Gap overlooking a beautiful finger lake in Glendaloug Valley