End of the line - It's Dublin time

 Did anyone else just immediately think of Cool Runnings?  Man, that's a great movie.. but nothing to do with our last stop on our trip - Dublin. 

Personally, I really enjoy Dublin.  We haven't spent an extraordinary amount of time there, really only a few days... but I think it's a fun city, and it's really green.  We stayed at the same place we stayed for our honeymoon - Clontarf Castle.  It's just outside of the city a little bit, but with a bus stop in front that takes you straight into the city center.  The castle has been renovated, as seen below, so there is the mixture of stone and glass.  There are a couple of places to eat and a cozy bar.. and the rooms are very comfortable. 

We did another hop-on, hop-off bus tour to see Dublin since we really didn't have that much time.  It makes it a lot easier , and certainly much faster to see the various sites.  We of course did the Guinness Storehouse tour.  Fun fact #1 for Dublin, the Guinness factory atrium is in the shape of a giant pint glass, with the 9000 (that's NOT a typo) year lease that Mr. Guinness signed encased in the floor in the middle.  The storehouse is fun to walk through.  You get to touch, see, watch the various stages of how Guinness is made, and get a free pint at the top in their Gravity Bar that overlooks Dublin.  They also have all of their old slogans and advertisements out for display and old bottle designs.  It's fascinating to see how advertisements have changed --- and awkward that Guinness so blatantly, ummm..... used stereotypes in their marketing campaign...

Really?  "Him Strong"?.... Wow

It's funny to think back 3 years ago when we were here and I could barely get a few sips of Guinness down.  Oh how things have changed.  Since our honeymoon I have suddenly taken a liking to stouts -- I blame the good beer we get in Chicago.  Either way, it was too bad for John because I actually drank my beer this time, so he didn't get 2 free ones (of course by "free" I mean that we paid an admission into the storehouse... but I like to pretend that they give Guinness away like water in Ireland).

J

ohn and Pat hanging out in Gravity Bar with their pints.

After Guinness, another drinking adventure awaited us at the Jameson Distillery not too far away.  We hopped back on the bus and headed over - when I saw the car that I think I should own - the Megane.. Ha.  

The Jameson Distillery is no longer a working distillery - they do that elsewhere  now (Cork rings a bell).  But, you still get a good tour, and you get to listen to an Irish person talk for about an hour which I always find to be a good time.  At the beginning of the tour they ask for volunteers to taste whiskey at the end -- and as luck would have it, I got picked again this time around!  In all fairness, I waited until Marla was picked before throwing my hand up -- and I tried to get John to volunteer but he wouldn't... so I thought I would give it another shot.  I liked the whiskey this time around better as well.

While on the tour, they were talking about people who worked in the factory and nicknames that were given out.  I looked on the wall and found Tierney (Martha's maiden name)... the nickname for Tierney was Hump. 

Before the tour, clearly we needed to try the different levels of Jameson.. Delicious!

Then Marla and I did our comparison to become official Jameson Tasters:

When leaving Jameson, I saw what I think might have been one of the happiest pugs ever:

After a bit of a tour around on the bus, everyone kind of went their separate ways.  John and I went to find a snack:

You can't think that John could go an entire two weeks without having chicken wings, right?  The wings weren't half bad actually.

We saw some old gates and some stairs.

Took pictures in front of churches with fabulous blue doors.

We saw a little girl feeding a swan bread --- biggest fear of my day was imagining that little girl being attacked by the swan.  I think that would put her off of birds for a while.  But seriously, who lets their kid get that close to something that would gladly eat one of her fingers if she doesn't let go of the bread fast enough??

We got coffee from a place that put Intelligentsia to shame with the way they did designs on the top (that's not even complete yet).

And ultimately we just walked around until meeting up with Katie and Marla for dinner.

Our dinner was at a place called "Kitchen".  It was pretty tasty, and really cute.  They provided you with a blanket when you were seated outside to keep warm.  Brilliant!  I don't have really any good pictures of it since I'm still working on working my camera in anything other than daylight/non-moving situations. 

So, while short, the Dublin leg of our trip was still a nice way to end it, I think.  I would love to go back to Ireland and actually spend some time outside of the city... I want to see the giants causeway, cliffs, green fields, etc etc... And I think it would be a bit of a trip to drive on the other side of the road (assuming I could get the hang of it.. I don't even drive much in Chicago...).  It's also a great place to start and stop because it's one of the cheapest places to fly into for Europe, and Aer Lingus is a pretty nice airline.  So, it's my recommendation.  The flights between cities on the low-cost airlines (Easy Jet, Ryan Air) are still cheaper than trying to get into Paris from Chicago, or most cities for that matter, so I think it makes sense.  And it just adds another city that you might not see without it. 

That pretty much wraps up our trip.  I'm already itching to go back to Europe... try something new... a new city, a new country... I'm up for anything.  My favorite part of the trip - the doors we saw.  I know that sounds strange maybe, but the doors in Europe are just so full of character.  You'll see.

(Sorry I was so hopelessly slow at posting, I hope to work on my timeliness in the future of getting this out --- For my first attempt, not absolutely horrible --- but I can seriously only go up from the bottom, right?)