The Drink of the Irish- Dublin (Day 2)

We began Sunday with brunch at a great (albeit small) restaurant called Cafe Tiesan http://www.tiesan.com/. We miss being able to sit down at a restaurant for brunch at home, so it was perfect to sit and have coffee (the Cafe Latte was perfect-- lots of steamed milk), have delicious food (Adam had Guinness Bread French Toast), and read the paper. It was the perfect way to start a Sunday.

And after brunch, we headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral for Sunday service.

We don't have any of the pictures of the interior due to the fact that service was occurring. Rest assured it's beautiful (like all of the great European Cathedrals). And the choir during the service was fantastic. It really was mesmerising.

GUINNESS STOREHOUSE
And immediately after service, we walked to the Guinness Storehouse, of course.

And we learned how Guinness was made (the entire museum has a very industrial feel. It's great).

Ingredient #1: Barley

A huge supply of barley was on display.

Ingredient #2: Hops

Ingredient #3: Water

By the waterfall

Ingredient #4: The Brewer. Which is not to say, that despite this picture, that Adam is the brewer. Or that he was not excited to be there. :) But that the rest of the process is all about controlling the process. Including the boiling (this room in the museum is extremely loud, by the way)

 And we tasted some Guinness:

Just a bit to wet your whistle

Saw exhibitions about the transportation of Guinness throughout the world, it's advertising campaigns and the like. Did you ever make the connection that the Guinness Book of World Records was connected to the Storehouse? It is indeed.

"The word beer is thought to originate from..."

"...the Anglo-Saxon word Baere meaning Barley."

Original wooden casks. Making these was a word of art. When the factory switched to metal casks, they turned the wooden casks into furniture. Yes, it would be great to have an original cask table, wouldn't it?

The harp, like the one here, is the national symbol for Ireland. It is on the back of all Euros produced in Ireland, and is part of the national history.

A Guinness Ad.

And then headed to the Galaxy Bar on the fifth floor to have a full pint. We met a friend here too-- Tony the Dentist from Louisville who we had the pleasure of hanging with later that night at the Literary Pub Crawl. More on that in a minute.

The Galaxy Bar had a 360 degree view of Dublin. It was great.

See St. Patrick's off in the distance?

Cheers! (Your tour includes a pint)

All of the guide books say that the Guinness tastes different when you are in Dublin. I have to say that it did. It was not as harsh as it can be in the States. Adam, however, found no difference. And I have decided it will be time to have a pint the next time we are at the Elveden Inn, our newest favourite hotel/pub that is owned by Lord and Lady Iveagh. Lord Iveagh happens to be a descendant of Arthur Guinness, the original brewer of the drink itself. I'll let you know what we find. Or better yet, come here and try some with us!

BULL & CASTLE
We loved the Bull and Castle so much the day before, we had to go there again-- to try more microbrews, of course! And it didn't hurt that we walked right by it on our way back to the Temple Bar district from the Guinness Factory. No pictures, but great beer, and food, once again.

LITERARY PUB CRAWL
On our way back to Grafton Street, we saw the following. Adam thoroughly enjoyed it.

And then we got to Duke's Pub where the crawl began. During the crawl, we visited four pubs, all of which had to do with literary figures who are from Dublin (Seamus Heaney, Brendan Behan, James Joyce, Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett... you get the drift).

A very blurry picture of one of the pubs we hit along the way: M.J. O'Neills.

 Two men were our guides (see below) who performed pieces of different literary works (ex: Waiting for Godot) along the way. It was a great time.

Our hosts/ performers in action.

Our hosts and performers.

I came in second in our pub quiz earning me a small bottle of Dublin Mouthwash: Bushmills Whiskey. (Note: it was small enough that I could take it home on the plane with me= perfection.)

We met some great people (including an entire college class from Lafayette University- boy, did that bring me back...), including our Guinness Storehouse friend Tony.

Our new buddy who promised that the next time we meet up (in another European city), he would "bring a female along" so that I would have someone to talk to. lol Oh, the joys of travel :)