Dublin (round 2)

The first thing on the list to do once back in Dublin was the Guinness Storehouse. I think Danny could give a more enthusiastic review on this portion, but you'll have to ask him. He was so excited he almost forgot we still needed to eat breakfast before we went. It was a neat place, and even though I'm not a beer drinker I learned a few things. Here's a few fun facts I remember:

-Arthur Guinness signed a 9000 year lease on the property at St James Gate Brewery (where we were). Right now he is about 250 years into that lease.
-Some say Arthur Guinness created the stout, but this is not the case. However, according to the Irish, he did perfect it.
-It takes 119.5 seconds to properly pour a Guinness
-Women were the first to craft beer. We're so smart, aren't we? :)

While Guinness does not allow you to actually go into the brewery they do have stations set up showing every step in process as well as a lot of information on the history of Guinness. I really enjoyed the old advertising section (I guess that's my business mind). To do the tour is costs about 14 euro and you do get a free sample with each ticket. Being the nice wife I am I gave mine to Danny. He was able to use one ticket to learn to correctly pour his own perfect pint. He aced the test and received his certificate. I'm sure that will soon be hanging in our garage. He used the other ticket to get a beer in the very top floor of the brewery at The Gravity Bar. This is a great place to relax and have a beer (or in my case a Coca-Cola). It's a circular room with walls of glass where you can look out at a panoramic view of Dublin.

After a short break at our hotel we headed to the Temple Bar area. I am happy to report I found some amazing hot wings. Spicy food had been hard to come by in the countries we have been visiting this trip and the little taste of home was fantastic! If you're ever in Dublin, the name of the restaurant is Bad Ass Cafe, and as I said, it's in the Temple Bar area. After thoroughly enjoying our wings, we stopped in the famous Temple Bar to see what the buzz is all about. Temple Bar was a very busy but fun environment. We found an open seat (they were hard to come by) and sat down to enjoy the live music and have a couple drinks. We called it a night early since we had a tour booked for the following day.

Now onto the tour. I was looking forward to seeing the huge Cliffs of Moher while in Ireland. If only the weather would have cooperated. We were picked up for the tour at 8:00a and it was drizzling a bit but we had hopes it would clear up. As we headed west it seemed the clouds might lift. Our driver took us right along the coastline. The view was very pretty; I can't imagine how beautiful it would be in the sunshine! When we reached the great Cliffs of Moher the fog was so dense we could not see the natural wonder. According to one of the tour guides, this was the worst he had seen the fog on the cliffs in 8 years. While I was bummed, I can't complain too much as this is the first time Mother Nature ruined our plans in over 2 weeks. Plus, we now have yet another reason to return to Ireland! We hopped on the bus to head back to Dublin. We made a quick photo stop at Bunratty Castle and got back to Dublin in time for dinner. We finished the night at what they say is the smallest pub in Dublin, Dawson's Lounge. It's definitely tiny! The bathroom was so small there was a cushion in case you hit your head when you stood up.

This has been such a wonderful trip. Thank you to everyone who has been excited for us and followed along with the blog! I've really enjoyed sharing our stories but I feel like I only scratched the surface. There is so much more to tell from the silly cultural differences to the mental value of being away from everything for a bit. Again, thank you for all the support and excitement!