Ireland and Russo family reunion in England: Day 2

We awakened to a sunny day and headed out on our coach toward Waterford. Our assistant guide, Padraig, was along for the ride.

Initially we were on major highways, but soon the highways got smaller until we were on back country roads. The roads were lined with green fields and we saw a lot of cattle and sheep. We were headed to Jerpoint Park, and on the way stopped at Jerpoint Abbey for a quick photo.

Upon arriving at Jerpoint Park, we were greeted by Maeve and Joe, the owners of the property. First we met Robin, a very large horse.

We were then invited into their home and served delicious homemade scones, clotted cream, and raspberry jam. While enjoying this we heard some of their life on this farm. They have sheep, and they had just sheared the sheep last week. Maeve said the sheep are so heavy with wool that they have to be careful that they don't fall over, with their feet up in the air, because they cannot upright themselves due to the weight of their wool, and crows will peck their eyes out to get to their brains!! Yuck! She also said they sell the wool for almost nothing to the Chinese. Not many wear wool, so there is no market here and the proceeds from selling all their wool took their family of 4 out to an average dinner. By now it was raining, and Maeve described it as a "soft day" where it was rainy but no cold wind.

Joe then took us to see the remains of a village dating back to the 1200's. There are ruins of the church and also the graveyard is still there.

The church is the St. Nicholas church, and the remains of St. Nicholas (or a third of them anyway as two other graves supposedly contain his bones as well in other European countries) may be buried there. The story goes that St. Nicholas was quite well off and had 3 bags of gold. He wanted to share them and took bags to two houses. Upon getting to the third he found it locked, so he dropped the bag of gold down the chimney. Hence, St. Nick coming down the chimney!

Then Joe took us to see his Border Collie, Tap, herd sheep. Tap was amazing, and followed his commands to a T.

Our guide, Mal, had promised us a surprise and the surprise was that Tap also herds Geese!

We then headed off to Waterford. We had some time on our own and Bill and I walked the main street down by the water.

Next we had a tour of the Waterford factory. There were some amazing pieces, but the very cheapest thing was 50 Euros, so nothing is coming home!

The factory tour showed us the various stages of producing these beautiful pieces of crystal.

Then we had a walking tour of Waterford. Our very interesting guide took us to many local sights and shared a lot of history. Waterford was founded by Vickings in 850. There is a building in the main part of town that is the oldest complete building in Ireland - 1011 years in use.