Back to rain, rain and more rain! After breakfast we headed off into the wet weather and travelled to Waterford, with just a brief petrol, toilet and snack stop along the way. We had an hour to wait until the next tour of the Crystal Factory so we had lunch in th cafe. We also put the pacsafe nets over our dry bags for the first time … As we both had funny feelings about leaving the bike unprotected. In the end we went and moved the bike closer to the actual Crystal Factory so we could keep a better eye on it … No real reason just a funny feeling! Better safe than sorry! We both found the tour very interesting and there are some very talented people around …then you seen all the hand work that goes into each piece you can see why it’s so expensive. Vince offered to buy me a piece and I was tempted by the Lizmore Whiskey Tumblers …but at 150 Euro each ….I decided that money is needed elsewhere for our travels…so no purchases made. We have found the UK extremely expensive and it has blown our daily budget out of the water…but it is what it is …we are being careful in our choices of accommodation, meals etc….but it costs what it costs and that’s that I guess….the savage weather has not helped as it has forced us into B&B’s rather than camping ( which is much cheaper but still the same cost for a tent as a camper or caravan…and they charge per person not per tent and some places charge for showers – so still more expensive than we initially thought). We managed to get into the Travelodge for 54 euros ( $80) which is cheap by UK standards – very basic but clean and serviceable!
… and Vince says that without generalising, there are some ignorant and/or arrogant car drivers here in Ireland – ones that will look you in the eye and then still pull out in front of us and dare us to collide with them, or when they overtake us on the motorway they slide past us inside our lane, as close as they can get. Absolute knobs. At first I thought they were bike-hating drivers, but they do it to other car drivers as well. And they’re not driving shitboxes – they’re in BMW’s and Audis. Obviously money doesn’t equate to driving courtesy in all instances.
