Thursday morning I slept in a bit, because vacations are good for that. But by 11AM I was up and ready to go out, so I grabbed a bagel at a cute little cafe across from Trinity College and then bought a ticket on one of the City Sightseeing buses. Again it was my aunt who recommended I give one of these a try, I’d be dropped off at all the key locations and get a nice tour guide to go along with it. I ended up grateful for the guide, as the recommendation of visiting Kilmainham Gaol is not one I would have come up with on my own.
So, full of breakfast, it was time for a lunchtime tour of the Guinness Storehouse! I had already been warned about the touristness of this attraction, and that it’s the most expensive tour in the city, so my bases were covered.
The adventure begins by walking you through a couple of floors which explain in detail, with a lot of photos, diagrams and real materials how beer is made. Admittedly this was a bit dull for me, but after smelling all those beer ingredients I was working up an appetite for a Guinness – which is why the tasting room halfway through the tour was so fantastic. No more rushing to the bar, a nice tasting in the tasting room allows for craving-quenching and a leisurely exploration of the rest of the storehouse.
Now, I have to say that my favorite part of the storehouse (aside from the very cool Gravity Bar) was seeing all the Guinness advertising stuff – especially the figurines and cartoons. I suppose it’s not appropriate to advertise beer with cartoons anymore but the cartoons that ran back in the day were quite a treat, and they had a bunch of them playing in one an exhibit all about the artist, John Gilroy.
Plus, they had a gnu poster!
From cartoons I headed up to the Gravity Bar for my pint of Guinness! This is on the top level of the storehouse and offers a 360-degree view over Dublin.
My Guinness right off the tap:
Once the Guinness had settled I found a free spot next to a window and sat to enjoy! You know, talking about this all again makes me want a Guinness… I think there is one in the refrigerator calling my name.
Guinness consumed it was off to the bus and on to Kilmainham Gaol, a former prison.
All exploration of the prison is led by a tour guide (no wandering off!) so we were able to hear about the older history that included talking about the high number of women imprisoned for food-related crimes during the famine and the culture of imprisoning children of working age (which was typically as young as 8, but there is evidence of a 5 year old prisoner at one time) who committed crimes.
I didn’t know much about Irish independence, and the Easter Rising in 1916 only vaguely rang bells, but the former prison’s claim to fame was being the place of execution of the leaders (who later became martyrs for the successful war for independence) of this uprising. In the years to follow the prison held Civil War war criminals. In 1924 the prison closed and in the later half of the 20th century it salvaged and restored to be the historical landmark it is today.
Phew, after all that I needed a drink! So it was back on the bus and over to the Old Jameson Distillery tour. Much less grand in scale than the Guinness tour, it starts off with a video and then the tour guide asks if anyone wants to be one of the few tasters at the end of the tour. Now I am crazy shy, I’d never volunteer for something like this… unless everyone I mentioned this tour to responded with “YOU MUST VOLUNTEER TO BE A TASTER!” which was the case here. So I volunteered and was selected, yippee! But first the actual tour! It was a guided tour through the whiskey making process, from ingredients and processing to distilling and distribution – all along the way reminding us why Jameson is the superior whiskey.
The tour wraps up with your choice of whiskey drink, Jameson straight or mixed with coke, cranberry or ginger ale and to relax in their lounge and watch (or participate in!) the whiskey tasting. So I scooped up my whiskey and cranberry and headed over to the tasting table. The three for tasting were a Scotch Whiskey, an American Whiskey (JD, naturally) and the Jameson. Not being much of a whiskey drinker (aside from some lovely St Patty’s day memories with a bottle of Jack) the tasting was a fascinating experience – the Scotch was very smokey, the JD was it’s delicious but harsh self, and the Jameson was smooth and good. They convinced me! And as a reward for being convinced I came home with a Qualified Irish Whiskey Taster certificate with my name printed on it, excellent.
Unfortunately at this point it was 6PM and my only meal of the day had been breakfast so I was full of a few shots of whiskey and hungry. So, I did what any good British Isles tipsy person would do and met up with MJ for dinner at Zaytoon, where I had my very first kebab. Yummy.