Our Trafalgar bus left Dublin bright and early this morning as we set off for our “Best of Ireland” tour. Our first stop was New Ross where we visited the Dunbrody Famine Ship Experience. The Dunbrody is a replica of an 1840s emigration ship that sailed to America with Irish folk who were escaping the potato famine. Our host was energetic and funny but respectful of the sad history of this ship and its passengers. The conditions on the ship were horrible, but remarkably a large percentage of the emigrants managed to survive the journey and start a new life in our country. The exhibits also celebrated the contributions the Irish have made to American culture and politics.

From New Ross we traveled on to Waterford where we visited Waterford Crystal. We learned about the history of crystal production in Waterford and then took a tour of the factory where we watched the highly-skilled glass workers creating their art with our guide describing each step of the process. Waterford creates extraordinary pieces from the little bird we held in our hands, to the beautiful cut glass vases and stemware, to huge chandeliers, and even the ball that drops in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. When Paul and I were married we received a Waterford cut-glass decanter as a wedding gift from our best man. That decanter came to a tragic end, but that’s a story for another time.

After we left Waterford Crystal (without buying anything) we had a couple of hours to walk around the city of Waterford and explore a little.

From Waterford we traveled to Stonyford for the Malzards Pub and Hurling Experience. We began in the pub with pints of Kilkenny beer while our host introduced us to the sport of hurling.

I had never heard of hurling as a sport, but he explained to us that hurling in Ireland is not the same kind of hurling we Americans might do after too many beers. After learning some of the terminology and rules of the game we were invited to go out to the field and try some hurling ourselves. Paul and I stood on the sidelines with the other cheerleaders while the more adventurous (and younger) members of our group tried to pick up some hurling skills. Hilarity ensued.

Returning to our beers, we were treated to some Irish music which some of our fellow tour members contributed to. It was all great fun, and the beer was pretty good too.

We are now in our hotel in Kilkenny where we had a lovely dinner and enjoyed the company of two new friends from Mississippi. Tomorrow we head to Killarney.