Describe your ideal week.
With the Blink 182 concert off the menu we found ourselves heading for Dublin anyway. Up at the crack of dawn to fly to the fair city & by the time we reached the city centre it was definitely time for breakfast.
The weather was great & we mooched about until we could get to the accommodation where they kindly let us check in early. As we were a stones throw from O’ Connell Street it made sense to have a rest & then head back out.
Top of the list was a visit to the Guinness factory where we bargained we could at least drown our sorrows with a pint of the black stuff or many.
To get there we got ourselves a 48 hour Do Dublin bus ticket that enabled us to get about complete with a potted history of key places, jokes & singing from the various drivers.
As the factory is spread over seven floors we stopped at the cafe on floor 2 for a snack. The well put together exhibition that informs & entertains you as you find out more about the brewing process.
The water that goes into Guinness contrary to popular belief is not from the Liffy. Neither it seems is the one about it being full of iron & therefore ‘good for you’. I can recall nursing mothers being encouraged to drink this as a ‘tonic’. It seems that people took the marketing concept of ‘Guinness makes you stronger’ quite literally. Seems little fact checking went on back then either!
Into the tasting room where I will confess I had my first ‘proper’ taste. Seems I had been drinking it all wrong before & now I can taste the bubbles and other flavours. Who knew.
Then we carried on up past the marketing campaign items to the Gravity Bar. Here we could slowly drink a pint of carefully pulled ruby liquid whilst enjoying the view. Guinness it seems is actually a ruby beverage not black as many might suspect.
From the Gravity Bar you get great views across the city from almost 360 degrees. Once we had finished it was time to catch the bus back & grab a bite to eat. As we are we decided on the adventure for the following day.
The aim was to visit the former Guinness home that is located in the large green area known as Phoenix Park. Unfortunately I think I may have misjudged the scale of the map as the walk from the gate to the front entrance was about 15 mins just that the gate we got off the bus at was a good hours walk to get there. On the bright side we did see Wellington’s monument, the location of the zoo & have lunch at an award winning cafe.
Once we finally got to the mansion turns out a tour is free every first Wednesday of the month so don’t mind if we do! Meant we didn’t feel so bad about having afternoon tea after.
The tour inside is about an hour with a lovely knowledgeable guide who was able to answer our questions. The building is now used to house visiting dignitaries on State visits from time to time when not full of tourists like us. Despite all the history it seemed a building with essentially a happy vibe which isn’t always the case.
Trekking back we saw the Polo ground & sports & finally the bus stop. A bit of shopping before crashing out at the hotel.
With limited time the next day we looked around the outside of Dublin Castle & found Molly Malones statue. More shopping before sadly having to make our way to the airport. Top traveller tip do not try catching an ordinary city bus with luggage & trying to eat an ice cream. Especially if you had thought it would be a cashless payment system. Thankfully I had some cash on me & our bus trip cost 10cents less than it should as the driver was keen to stay on schedule & clearly didn’t want me emptying my rucksack in search of spare coins.
We did do a bit of Dublin but I’m sure we will venture back to do a bit more .