Ireland - Day 1
August 7 - 8
Ireland has been on my list of vacation destinations forever and the day has finally arrived! We left Rochester late afternoon on August 7 for our overnight flight to Dublin. Ruth and her family are traveling with us for the next 10 days as we travel around Ireland on an Adventures by Disney tour.
Thankfully our overnight flight to Dublin was on time. We arrived pretty tired with the 5 hour time difference and little sleep on the plane but we stayed up for the day..
We checked into the College Green Hotel, our home of the next 3 nights. Thankfully one of our rooms was ready despite the early hour. so we had an opportunity to lay down in a real bed for a short rest before heading out to explore Dublin. The best way to get over jet lag seems to be to just work though being tired the first day so our bedrest was brief. Our hotel was right next to Trinity College which is great location for getting around Dublin on foot.
We had tickets to the Guinness Storehouse for the “Guinness Experience”, which is a must do when visiting Dublin. The facility was about 30 minutes away on foot so we decided to walk allowing plenty of time to visit a few shops and have some lunch at an Irish pub before our ticket time.
On our walk we explored the grounds of the beautiful Christ Church Cathedral but didn’t have time for a visit. Maybe tomorrow.
We were getting a bit hungry before the Guinness tour so we stopped at Arthur’s Pub, a traditional Irish pub a few minutes walk from the Guinness Storehouse. The food was great and the service exceptional. Charlie asked for a Shirley Temple and the waiter/bar tender said he’d never make one but would do his best. Charlie told him it was the best Shirley Temple he’d ever had which put a smile on the waiter’s face. Ruth and Charlie enjoyed a game of Rummy as we waited for our food and their play gave a number of the waiters a smile. We had a variety of dishes including a seafood stew, an Irish stew, fish and chips and an interesting take on corn on the cob they called corn ribs. The smells of the food were as wonderful as the taste.
We arrived at the Guinness Storehouse just in time for our entry time. The facility is a 7 story building which was the original Guinness factory where Arthur Guinness signed a 9000 year lease in 1759. It has interactive displays, museum artifacts and a few taste experiences. The tour is self guided, except of course for dispensing of the Guinness. We learned about the brewing process as we passed though the different sections which used humor and included a number of sensory experiences.. Charlie enjoyed a number of the displays and had fun running around in them and trying to touch everything. We (the adults, that is) also learned the proper way to experience the taste of Guinness. I’d never had Guinness but everyone else had, and said the taster of the fresh beer was much better than we get at home. We ended the tour at the Gravity Bar, on the 7th floor with its 360 degrees ceiling to floor views of Dublin. We all received a complementary, freshly poured pint of Guinness (except for Charlie who got a soda). I was surprised how much I liked the creamy top, but the beer was not something I could finish. We all enjoyed the views as we sipped our beer but the bar was crowded, the tables were full , our feet hurt, and we were all pretty exhausted so we decided to call it a day before anyone finished their pint.
We were too tired to walk the 30 minutes back to the hotel so we splurged on a horse carriage ride. Thank you, Ruth! The carriage was ancient with a hood that the driver put up when it started to rain. It felt like an experience one might have had a few hundred years ago. The ride was a good end to the day.
On returning to our hotel, everyone crashed. I woke a few hours later and David and I enjoyed a cup of tea which is specially blended for the hotel. We both loved it and hope to find some to bring home.
We all turned in early. Tomorrow we should feel a bit more rested.
