A city so nice, they named it twice?
Not exactly (I mean it is nice, but that is not the real story). The Waterford in our address does refer to the city, but we are also in Waterford county (the light green area at the bottom), no states here, it is all about counties. You don’t have to put a second Waterford on anything addressed to us because it is assumed. If we lived in Dungarvan, Lismore or another city in Waterford county, it would need to include the county name. County names came about in the 16th century. Before that, political divisions were the four provinces: Ulster, Leinster, Munster and Connaught (we're in Munster).
Waterford county is in the lower southeast corner of Ireland – Wexford county is the most southeast county, but we are the next county west. Waterford city is in the northeast corner of the county – the county is narrow at the eastern end, so even though we are at the top of it, we are within 10 miles of the southern coast of the country. The northern border of our city is the River Suir, which is also the northern border of our county, so county Kilkenny is a little over a mile from our house (as the crow flies). About six kilometres west, the River Suir flows into Waterford Harbour. The harbour is a protected bay, running about 15 kilometres north to south.
The harbour is the reason that Waterford exists. The Vikings found it a great access point for getting the goods out of the more inland areas of Ireland (they came here to raid the abbeys). Waterford is actually the oldest city in Ireland, founded by the Vikings in 914 A.D.! We still have portions of our medieval city wall and guard towers – I love that. Waterford was a bigger city than Dublin, but no more! Waterford’s population is around 40,000 people (Dublin is 500,000).
Downtown has a central square, which is more triangular actually. The two to three blocks around that are basically the city centre with lots of shopping, pubs and restaurants. My favourite store is the Waterford Book Centre. A lovely bookstore with all these signs encouraging you to peruse the books, get a cup coffee, sit a while. Right now, there is a tiny coffee stand in there, but a proper coffee shop is going in sometime. I can’t wait – I will be in there for hours! My other favourite place down there is Lattetude – they make a pretty decent latte, a rare find in this land o' tea.
The tourist office is on the Quay, a couple blocks north of the central square. The Quay (“key”) runs along the river. Mostly there are no buildings on the river side, just the bus station and a flower store. The quay is probably five or so blocks long with Reginald’s Tower at one end – a Norman tower dating from the 12th to 13th centuries.
One of the surprising things about Waterford is how hilly it is – I mean it isn’t Seattle, but downtown is bordered on the south by a little hill (it’s about three blocks from bottom to top). There are a couple other low hills beyond the city centre too.
The big attraction here is of course the Crystal Factory, which I visited a couple weeks ago. It is very interesting – as a tour space/factory, they’ve done a great job. No more on that, you have to come see for yourself!
Not exactly (I mean it is nice, but that is not the real story). The Waterford in our address does refer to the city, but we are also in Waterford county (the light green area at the bottom), no states here, it is all about counties. You don’t have to put a second Waterford on anything addressed to us because it is assumed. If we lived in Dungarvan, Lismore or another city in Waterford county, it would need to include the county name. County names came about in the 16th century. Before that, political divisions were the four provinces: Ulster, Leinster, Munster and Connaught (we're in Munster).
Waterford county is in the lower southeast corner of Ireland – Wexford county is the most southeast county, but we are the next county west. Waterford city is in the northeast corner of the county – the county is narrow at the eastern end, so even though we are at the top of it, we are within 10 miles of the southern coast of the country. The northern border of our city is the River Suir, which is also the northern border of our county, so county Kilkenny is a little over a mile from our house (as the crow flies). About six kilometres west, the River Suir flows into Waterford Harbour. The harbour is a protected bay, running about 15 kilometres north to south.
The harbour is the reason that Waterford exists. The Vikings found it a great access point for getting the goods out of the more inland areas of Ireland (they came here to raid the abbeys). Waterford is actually the oldest city in Ireland, founded by the Vikings in 914 A.D.! We still have portions of our medieval city wall and guard towers – I love that. Waterford was a bigger city than Dublin, but no more! Waterford’s population is around 40,000 people (Dublin is 500,000).
Downtown has a central square, which is more triangular actually. The two to three blocks around that are basically the city centre with lots of shopping, pubs and restaurants. My favourite store is the Waterford Book Centre. A lovely bookstore with all these signs encouraging you to peruse the books, get a cup coffee, sit a while. Right now, there is a tiny coffee stand in there, but a proper coffee shop is going in sometime. I can’t wait – I will be in there for hours! My other favourite place down there is Lattetude – they make a pretty decent latte, a rare find in this land o' tea.
The tourist office is on the Quay, a couple blocks north of the central square. The Quay (“key”) runs along the river. Mostly there are no buildings on the river side, just the bus station and a flower store. The quay is probably five or so blocks long with Reginald’s Tower at one end – a Norman tower dating from the 12th to 13th centuries.
One of the surprising things about Waterford is how hilly it is – I mean it isn’t Seattle, but downtown is bordered on the south by a little hill (it’s about three blocks from bottom to top). There are a couple other low hills beyond the city centre too.
The big attraction here is of course the Crystal Factory, which I visited a couple weeks ago. It is very interesting – as a tour space/factory, they’ve done a great job. No more on that, you have to come see for yourself!
By the way, photo up top is me enjoying fish and chips at a downtown pub, so far my favorite fish and chips in lovely downtown Waterford.
Today’s quick list:
Don’t like: No towel rack in our bathroom. The rentals in Ireland are typically furnished, ours has major furniture, but is severely lacking in things that I consider basic for a rental, like places to hang wet towels and toilet paper rolls. We aren’t allowed to puncture the walls either. What do people do with their wet towels here?!
Like: The garbage system. Everyone has three bins here – black, brown and green. Black is all true garbage, green is recyclables (paper, plastic bottles, cans), brown is kitchen and yard waste. Every week one of the bins is collected – we have a schedule that shows us which bin for the week. You have to buy a yearly permit, then each week you buy a disc – which is actually a rectangular sticker that you attach to the bin on collection day. You could really just put everything in the black bin, but it only gets picked up once every three weeks (and is about the size of a typical US garbage – which US families fill every week!) and costs E7.50. The green and brown bins only cost E2.50 on collection days. So, it hits your pocket book to recycle. I love that – you pay to pollute, that is how it should be.
Today’s quick list:
Don’t like: No towel rack in our bathroom. The rentals in Ireland are typically furnished, ours has major furniture, but is severely lacking in things that I consider basic for a rental, like places to hang wet towels and toilet paper rolls. We aren’t allowed to puncture the walls either. What do people do with their wet towels here?!
Like: The garbage system. Everyone has three bins here – black, brown and green. Black is all true garbage, green is recyclables (paper, plastic bottles, cans), brown is kitchen and yard waste. Every week one of the bins is collected – we have a schedule that shows us which bin for the week. You have to buy a yearly permit, then each week you buy a disc – which is actually a rectangular sticker that you attach to the bin on collection day. You could really just put everything in the black bin, but it only gets picked up once every three weeks (and is about the size of a typical US garbage – which US families fill every week!) and costs E7.50. The green and brown bins only cost E2.50 on collection days. So, it hits your pocket book to recycle. I love that – you pay to pollute, that is how it should be.
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