We explored around Dublin on day four. It was Glenn’s last day with us as he had to leave that evening to fly home. I always wish he had more vacation days! But I guess someone in this family has to be responsible and bring in the moulah. How else could I afford to take nice pictures and skip around Europe?
At least he’s pretty.
So on Day 4 in Ireland Glenn and Allie decided to start the day right and go for a little run. I thought about joining in, but decided that documenting the run was a far better use of my time. (I’m full of excuses for not working out lately)
We met a very friendly Irishman.
She’s pretty too.
After that we walked around Dublin. We saw a lot of this:
That’s because the Guinness Factory is in Dublin. And that means that you see A LOT of things marked with the Guinness label. I know that Americans always associate Guinness with Ireland, but I had no idea how deep the relationship between the two were. In addition to helping restore quite a few buildings in the city (most notably St. Patrick’s cathedral in 1860) the brewery once had 1/3 of the population of Dublin dependent on Guinness for their livelihood. Impressive, no? Ireland has other beers and breweries, but none more impressive or influential as Guinness.
So of course we had to take a tour.
It was pretty sweet. The Storehouse is humongous and very interesting.
We learned about the importance of the local water. (Arthur Guinness believed it was so important that he signed a 9,000 year lease on the property to ensure uninterrupted access to the river)
And roasting the barley in juuuust the right way.
Some interesting facts about Guinness:
- Guinness got it’s start in 1759
-In 1769 they started exporting to England. In other words, they’ve been exporting beet longer than the USA has been a country.
- In 1817 they started exporting to America. James Madison was President.
- in the 1800s the Dublin Guinness brewery became the largest brewery in the world
- today, Guinness exports to over 150 countries around the world.
The guys were given lessons on how to pour the perfect pint
You start pouring at a 45 degree angle and slowly straighten it up.
Fill it almost to the top and then you put it down and let it sit.
Then when it looks like this, you pour again.
The perfect pint takes 119.53 seconds to prepare.
Certified. and proud of it.
Bottoms up!
Cheers, y’all!
But enough about beer…
This is St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It honestly wasn’t as impressive as other european cathedrals. (realize that I sound like a snob. Yes, it is impressive. Anything that’s existed since the 13th century is impressive)
Here’s another view of it.
This park is where St. Patrick (who brought Christianity to Ireland) baptized some of Ireland’s first christians here.
Random fact about St. Patricks’: The first time Handel debuted his Messiah was at this church.
This is Christchurch Cathedral.
This is Dublin Castle.
And so ended another fun day!
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