The Events of Friday, May 13, 2011

                The alluring aroma of chocolate infused with marshmallows and cream floated up to my nose. I gazed down on the mug of tempting hot chocolate and couldn’t resist trying a sip. Blissful chocolate! I looked across the table at the rest of my family sipping at various cups of attractive concoctions. While Dad elegantly poured his cup of tea, Mom sipped blissfully at another mug of hot chocolate, and the other kids savored fruit smoothies, orange juice, or hot chocolate. Sitting at a table in the Riverbank House Hotel, we awaited the arrival of our traditional Irish breakfast.

                Having awakened at about seven, we had skipped breakfast for the time being and brushed our teeth, for we would not be coming home for the rest of the day. Bumping along merrily to Wexford, we arrived at the Riverbank House Hotel just when our stomachs started rumbling. And now here we were, sipping our delicious hot chocolate and tea, after having been greeted by a kind young lady, who seated us at a table in an otherwise unoccupied dining room.

                She explained to us the simple menu – the continental buffet was one price, and all the other options were another. The other options also included the continental buffet. We decided on three continental buffets and three other dishes. Our guide book had recommended the traditional Irish Fry, consisting of cereal, eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, a grilled tomato, and black and white pudding, but we noticed that, in addition to the “Full Irish” fry, there was the Riverbank Special, which included all the features of the Fry, with sautéed potatoes and mushrooms added. Mom also expressed interest in the Pan-Fried Lemon Sole, so we ordered one of each of these options. Expressing curiosity about the ingredients in black and white pudding, our waitress actually refused to tell us until we tried it. Soon the steaming plates arrived, loaded with food.

                Mom’s lemon sole was the first thing we tried, yummy pan-fried fish that actually came with bacon. Diving into our portions of the Special and the Fry, we loved all the meats, eggs and toast. Dad loved the black and white puddings, but everyone preferred the white pudding to the black. The puddings didn’t taste like pudding at all, and they looked more like sausage patties. They tasted like flavorful meatloaf. It was only later that we learned that the puddings were made from pig’s blood and intestinal insides. The difference between the black and white is that the black has more blood. We girls, the three with the continental breakfast, in addition to sharing everybody else’s meal, filled up with croissants, pastries, toasts, and four different types of juices, plus fruit smoothies and yogurt. By the end we were so full that we only needed a couple of snacks throughout the day to hold us over until dinner. Following breakfast, we took advantage of the free Wi-Fi in the hotel lobby before heading to the Hook Lighthouse.

                The Hook Lighthouse is the oldest functioning lighthouse in the world. According to legend, St. Dubhan, arriving in the fifth century, was dismayed to find the bodies of shipwrecked sailors, so he and his followers began tending a bonfire to warn other seafarers. The structure today was built by the Normans because of its strategic location near the port they had built, so as to protect the ships coming into the harbor. The lighthouse is now electronic, 110 feet tall and has ten foot thick walls. It is more than 800 years old, and the building plan was motivated by one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt. The idiom, “By Hook or by Crooke” came to existence here when Oliver Cromwell, arriving here to secure the English claim on Waterford, said he would claim it “by Hook or by Crooke”. Hook refers to the peninsula with the lighthouse, and Crooke is a small town on the other side of Waterford.

                We learned all this information as we toured this 800-year-old lighthouse. The ten-foot-thick walls had a staircase built within them that we used to climb up three stories. The first story served as the assistant lighthouse keeper’s quarters, and the second story as the lighthouse keeper’s quarters. Our tour ended in the third story with a beautiful, but windy, balcony view of the sea. Since we were on the end of a peninsula, it was fun to follow the water up on each side of the land until it reached the mainland. The fourth story was not open to the public, because the light kept there is still working to save lives. Daddy asked our guide a question about the fog horns. Our guide told him that, because of budget cuts, they stopped using the fog horns. We were astounded to learn that within the first week of the silencing of the fog horns, a craft was lost, and a man drowned.

                Checking our watches, we realized our afternoon was quickly vanishing, so Dad asked our tour guide the fastest way to get to Waterford. He told us that riding a ferry would take five minutes and save us an hour of driving. Following his instructions, we arrived, drove on the ferry, and the ferry took off. We were across in no time. It was a very weird experience, because it didn’t feel at all like we were moving, but we could see the scenery around us shifting.

                Hurrying on to the Waterford Crystal Factory, we arrived just in time for the tour. It started with a movie shown in a room with mirrors as walls, giving the history of the factory and crystal making. Then Nathalie, our guide (pronounced Natalie), took us through the factory. The tour was very interesting, except it was sort of like a big commercial. However, the next hour was definitely an informational one. The crystal process (along with our tour) started in the blowing and furnace room, where blowers heat the crystal. When the molten crystal is red-hot, the workers blow air through a tube creating a hollow in the crystal. Then they use wooden molds to shape the exterior of the crystal. We enjoyed seeing both of these skills demonstrated. The blowers, we learned, went through five years of training, with each step up in skill level requiring additional years of apprenticeship. For example, the most skilled craftsmen, the sculptors, have trained ten years.

                The crystal then passes from the blowers to quality inspection. Here workers carefully examine each piece. They smash and re-melt over one-third of the pieces because they are not absolutely perfect. That’s a lot of glass – oh, excuse me, crystal. Crystal is 33% lead, and it’s heavier, while glass has no lead at all.

                The crystal then passes through the drawing room, where the designers draw grids, if not the whole design, onto the crystal with markers. If trying a new design, as was the case today, the drawers sketch on the whole pattern because the cutters do not know it. Then in the cutting room, the cutters used diamond wheels to essentially engrave the design into the crystal. In the last room, the sculpting and engraving room, the most skilled craftsmen carve specially commissioned pieces. It was very fun to see trophies for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, alongside trophies for events we had never heard of before. There was even an intricate memorial to the rescuers who died on the attacks of 9/11 trying to save others’ lives. The tour, of course, ended in the gift shop, where most of the pieces of crystal were outrageously expensive. One piece was an intricate crystal urn. This struck Ben as funny, because why would you pay 1,300 Euros (about 1,800 US dollars) to put ashes in a gorgeous piece of crystal? So you could see them all the time?

                Carefully departing, so as not to break anything, we headed back home. Finally having our appetites again, we cooked up four pizzas and devoured them. The pizzas here are very small. Immensely satisfied, we headed to bed.