Day 3- August 4th

 The next day we went back to the airport and picked up our rental cars. It was cheaper to get them this day, and the bus system made it not too bad to do. Initially we were going to get 3 cars and I was going to be a driver. We found out just before that the cars were manual. I was worried but ready to take it on. When we got to rent them, we asked if there were bigger cars we could get and we ended with 2 big cars. While I think I could have driven and been fine, I am very glad I didn't have to. 

Car one was stuffed to the brim. Car 2 was the same. 

Weird seeing the driver and the traffic on the wrong side of the road. 

The country side is beautiful. Once we got the cars we drove toward Kenmar. On the way we stopped in Waterford and went to tour the Waterford Crystal factory. 

Such a cool tour. The pieces are beautiful and it was cool to see how it was done. It was a working factory so we were able to see them making them as we were there. 

The molds for some of the pieces.

This is the first part. Making some vases today. These fires are 1400 degrees and can't be turned off. If they cool down it takes a few days to warm back up. 

After they were made it had to go to a storage area to slowly cool down. 

This next area was shaving off some rough parts and checking for imperfections. 

They would break the imperfect ones and melt them down to start again. 

Next they go to be marked if they need to. Some of the machines in this room were there since it opened. 

Then someone hand cuts them. It was crazy to watch how precise they were with cutting. 

This machine was for a few cuts, but majority are done by hand. 

A few one off pieces. 

Each department is training on the spot. It takes about 5 years for most, one area takes 8 years. If you wanted to learn all of the areas it would take you 36 years of training. The end products are so pretty. I didn't get anything here but loved to look at them. 

We stopped at an Aldi to get some lunch. I got knock off Gatorade or Raptoraid, and cool ranch Doritos or Deltas. Both were not good. No drink was that great here. 

That night we went to a bar and ate dinner. We had to split up the 13 of us. 

I got a cottage pie that was 300 degrees. It was really hot, but good once it cooled down. 

The view from our house.