A Pint of Guinness
Trip Start
Apr 12, 2011
1
35
46
Trip End
Jun 26, 2011
Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
The flight from Edinburgh to Dublin was with Ryanair. We got to the airport early as they seemed to be a similar setup to Tiger airways in Australia and we had been warned not to cut it fine for a flight or to be extra careful about carry on luggage size. We checked our bags in too and got to the departure lounge early to ensure that we complied with all the airline rules.
They started the boarding process an hour before the scheduled departure. We then realised that there was no assigned seating, so it was first come best served. So we jumped in the queue to ensure we ended up with good seats. We got as far as the staircase leading to the tarmac when the line stopped moving. We waited in the staircase for 20 minutes. I even got the laptop out and wrote a blog entry while we waited. A guy eventually came in and told us that there was going to be a small wait while the crew changed. When we did start moving again I was surprised how quickly everyone found seats on the plane. It seemed to me that reserved seating slows the boarding process down. This process worked much more smoothly. Also they were very quick at getting the plane moving and up in the air after getting everyone seated.
The flight was short, but I didn't really enjoy it. The service was good. It was just that I felt ill. I have gotten used to train travel and I was sad to start flying again. Our last leg through USA is full of little flights and I am not looking forward to that.
At the end of the flight "Ta dah da" signaled an announcement over the PA, "You have just arrived on another on time flight with Ryanair". Ryanair has beaten all other European airlines in getting 90% of there flights arriving on time. Turns out this flight had also arrived 20 minutes early.
Once off the plane we followed the signs in the terminal along with all the other passengers to the exit, but it just seemed to be corridor after corridor. I think it was about 1km from where we landed to the main terminal. Once our passports had been checked and we were quizzed about our stay we collected our bags. We braced our self for the walk through customs and tried to remember if there was anything in our bags to declare. We walked through the gate expecting to be greeted with a line for the declaration, only to find we had just walked out of the airport. Guess the custom check isn't as thorough as at home.
We found the air coach to Dublin city and sat right up front so we could see straight out the front of the coach. It was a very leisurely drive into Dublin. The coach seemed to amble at a very slow pace as other cars whizzed passed, which was probably good as it was a good pace to see the highlights of the main street in Dublin. We hopped off at Trinty College and walked up Dame St in Temple Bar to find the hotel we had booked online. Wasn't too hard to find, only we had some trouble finding the entrance. An Irish bloke standing outside the pub beneath the hotel called out directions to us to go round the corner a bit further. We got what he was saying but the Irish accent was quite thick so his hand gestures probably gave us most clue as to where the entrance to the hotel is, that and I think he had a fair few pints under his belt.
Our room was lovely, but we didn't stop long as we decided to head out and find food as I was still feeling unwell from the flight (not sure why we thought food would help but it did). I know we are in Ireland and our first meal should be something Irish, but we ended up in an American Diner style place (mainly cos all the other places we passed were all Asian food so we figured either choice was as bad as the other). I had the haystack salad (pretty much salad with goats cheese, with a humongous pile of shredded tortillas on top). Paul had a burger. Feeling better after dinner we returned to the hotel for a good nights sleep.
Day 1:
The only thing on the agenda for Dublin was to see the Guinness Storehouse. We looked through tourist brochures to see if there was anything else we were interested in seeing or doing in Dublin, but there was just lots of museums (not a great interest of ours). So we headed on foot to the Guinness Storehouse. Along the way we came across a small cafe where we each ordered breakfast wraps. Oh my gosh they were huge. Tasty and huge. They contained egg, bacon, tomato and sausage. We did our best devouring them, but we were defeated. Neither of us managed to finish our wrap. We reached the Guinness Storehouse on very full tummies, which is probably a good thing because the tour included Guinness tasting and I'm sure that it is better to do this on a full stomach.
We jumped the entry queue by using the credit card ticket purchasing machines and we got up to the first floor ready to hear the tour introduction. The first section is all about the ingredients of Guinness - Barley, Hops, Water and Yeast. The displays they had for each were quite impressive. I was surprised to learn what Hops were.
Next we read about the history of Arthur Guinness and the 9000 year brewery lease, and the decision to stop brewing lager and to only brew porter.
The next section was all about the process involved in the making of Guinness. It was a pretty good setup, we followed the brewery manager through the process on each of the screens in each section almost as if following a real guide through each step of the process.
The following section was the tasting room. I didn't bother picking up a tasting glass for myself instead just a sip of Paul's and good thing too as I still don't like it. Paul's tastes have changed a bit as he wasn't a fan before, but quite enjoyed the small tasting glass and even finished it (unlike the scotch whiskey and yes it was almost as early in the morning).
We continued going up floor after floor through the different displays. We became the brewery manager's honorary apprentice and had our photo taken. As we made our way up each floor I realised the shape of the inner section of the building formed a beer glass. Definitely an interesting building. We made it to the top where we exchanged our tickets for a drink each. I had a soft drink while Paul had a massive glass (pint) of Guinness. We sat and sipped our drinks while looking out over Dublin in the bar at the top of the Guinness Storehouse. Was an impressive view. When Paul had finished his Guinness we took the glass elevator all the way to the bottom of the giant beer glass and had a look around the gift shop before heading out of the Guinness Storehouse.
Not far down the road we found a pub which looked like an authentic Irish Pub and ordered lunch. Though we didn't order any traditional Irish food. Paul had fish and chips and I had a chicken wrap. And we found out what Lemon Squash is called over here, Club Lemon. When we tried to ask for Lemon Squash/lemon soft drink in England the girl at counter had exclaimed "Is that an Australian thing?"
We had spent most of the day at the Guinness Storehouse and had had a late lunch so to fill in the rest of the afternoon we decided to walk along the river and to cross Ha' Penny bridge. Back in the day you used to have to pay half a penny to cross the bridge. Today it's free and there were lots and lots of people crossing it. We did a loop and returned to the hotel.
For dinner again we failed to have traditional Irish food, we ended up at an Asian restaurant and then had an early night to prepare for our driving trip the next day.
