Today we are going to talk about Waterford, Lismore Castle, the great town of Killarney and our not so great Hertz rental.
We spent only one night in Cork so we can't say much about it except the hotel was nice and of course all our meals were good. We had to back track to Waterford as Caren wanted to see the Waterford Crystal Showroom. Sadly when we got there we found the location only to find it had closed a few months earlier. We did some investigating about town and found out what was the status of Waterford Crystal. Good news they were opening a new show room in Waterford with this past June as the target date. They will continue to make Waterford Crystal in Ireland, however it is now going to be made in other countries as well. We did find a number of pieces in the town of Waterford but it was going fast as people wanted Irish pieces. I would be careful when buying Waterford Crystal if you want only Irish pieces as very little will be produced in Ireland now. News flash for collectors of Royal Daulton and Wedgewood China, looks like the same fate is in store for them. I would snatch those up before those are gone as well.
As for the town of Waterford its main appeal was the Waterford Crystal Factory and I am afraid without that, the towns future is not good.
One of my missions while in Ireland was to find the fast found place called Eddie Rockets. It is similar to Johnny Rockets in the USA . The food was really good and we found it to be a fun place to eat and one was in Waterford.
We left Waterford with our destination being the town of Killarney. On our way there we stopped in the little town of Lismore and Lismore Castle. It was late in the day so we only got to see this beautiful castle from the outside. The castle is available for rent and has an art gallery and a garden. Caren and I took the view in for awhile and since it would be dark soon figured we better be on our way. That was what we thought any way as the Kia Sportage would not start. After several attempts to start it we realized we were not going any where. The starter was shot. Bad news was we were on a road not traveled on by many and the few who did just drove by. Good news was we had a GSM cell phone we bought for the trip in case an emergency arose. Guess this was a good thing as this was an emergency. (you think!)
Well we called Hertz and were told they would bring another vehicle for us. We told them where we were and they said they knew the area. The rep from Hertz said he would call back with an estimated time of arrival. We ended up calling them after a bit of time went by without a call. The rep said the vehicle would be coming from Shannon Airport on a flatbed truck. The rep said the vehicle would arrive in hour. An hour and a half later we called them again to see where the vehicle was. Told that it took awhile to get a replacement SUV as there were not many available. We were told by Hertz that it would be arriving in 30 minutes. Well another 45 minutes passed and still no vehicle. We were able to track down the guy who waited on us at the airport and voiced our displeasure on how this was being handled. He told us what another fellow told us and that it took longer to get a replacement vehicle and that Shannon was a bit of a drive. Well after over a 3 hour wait the Flatbed truck arrived with our replacement vehicle. We were not very happy to hear that the replacement came from Cork which was about an hour away and not Shannon Airport as we were told. Good news was the replacement vehicle was a Land Rover and it had every feature you could think of. The driver showed us how to start it and that was it. Service oriented this company is not. Meant to mention a nice feature of a rental is they give you is a portable GPS unit. It did come in handy on the many back roads we were to travel. Only complaint on the unit was it at times was a little late telling you when to turn. Some how we ended up on a dirt road in the dark. This road was for two way traffic, however it was barley wide enough for the Land Rover as it is a bit wide for the dirt roads in Ireland. Happy to report we made it to a paved road five miles later without meeting any traffic going the other way. On this trip we ended up on a dirt road a few times, still not sure how it happened but it did. Caren showed white knuckles a few times because of that. We arrived in Killarney very late that night and we were had a few moments of excitement trying to get into the hotels underground parking. Again the SUV had pros and cons, this was one of the cons as the parking garages in Ireland are hard to maneuver a SUV. Please enjoy the photos below and I will talk with you again tomorrow.
Thats it for today and I will talk tomorrow.
Cheers,
Charlie Cotter
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