IRISH NATIONAL STUD: No... The Irish National Stud isn’t a hunky movie celebrity but it’s a farm managed specifically to produce winning race horses. The facility paid no less than a million euros for any of its males. They run all the way from one million up to eighty million euros. The horse that caught my imagination is called “Invincible Spirit” and cost four million. He had won only seven important races before he was put out to stud, so he is one of the cheap ones. The close up photograph is a mare. Mares don’t cost so much. Go figure.
We visited a Japanese garden... Why it is part of the Irish National Stud is still a mystery to me.
We have some Waterford crystal, so when Margaret learned that we were going to city where it was made, she got excited about it and her excitement, as it usually does, rubbed off on me. It was a great surprise to learn today that the Waterford plant has closed, perhaps to reopen in a year or two. The city is obviously depressed as the global recession grows worse.
We stopped at Kilkenny for lunch. Margaret and I went into a pub because the chalk notice board outside advertised traditional Irish Stew. They were fresh out, so we settled for a decidedly American turkey club sandwiches and vegetable soup.
The wall of peeling paint and old posters near the Dooley's Hotel is appropriate for Waterford. Don't get me wrong. I like this place. It is having a hard time holding onto an image of itself that involves finely cut crystal. I must ask someone tomorrow about the beautiful new bridge that crosses the river a couple of miles up river (maybe it's down river... I'll have to ask about that, too). I'm guessing it was designed by the same Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava, who designed the Sun Dial Bridge in Red Bluff, California; (Yes! Red Bluff.) It's the bridge that actually tells time of day. There is also a bridge in Dublin by Calatrava...looks like a harp, Ireland's national symbol. If you don't this architect's work, Google him. Amazing imagination. Like that race horse, he obviously has an invincible spirit.
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