I’m back today with blog post 2 of 4 for our Ireland trip. This post covers two days on the trip. On our second day in Dublin, we headed to the Guinness Storehouse. Now, everyone was telling us the Jameson’s Distillery was a lot better to see than the Guinness Brewery, but we decided to go for it and it was pretty fun overall. It was more of a ‘walk through’ tour than interactive, but we loved making stouties (more on that below) and the panoramic Gravity Bar at the top of the building had great aerial views of Dublin.
I was excited (with my lack of sleep!) that the Guinness Storehouse had a coffee house on site! I tried the delicious Guinness Mocha Latte and it did NOT disappoint. The harp is the Guinness iconic symbol and we saw them all throughout the tour. The design was based on the Brian Boru harp, which is still on display today at Trinity College.
We added on the Stoutie Experience to our ticket and it was one of our favorite parts of the Guinness tour! They took a photo of us and then used a machine to place the image onto the froth of our Guinness. I’m not a big beer drinker, especially not a huge dark beer drinker… but, I’ll drink this! Ha, ha! The Guinness really does taste better in Ireland!
After the Stoutie Experience, we went up to the Gravity Bar to see the panoramic view of the city. After that, we went down to eat in the Brewer’s Dining Hall, which was surprisingly good! I got Guinness Beef Stew with Mashed Potatoes. It hit the spot!
After the tour at Guinness, we decided to check out the Temple Bar area while we had some time. We walked past (and took a peak inside) The Brazen Head, which is Ireland’s oldest bar, Est. 1198.
The Ha’penny Bridge is a cast iron pedestrian bridge built in May 1816 over the River Liffey in Dublin. It is in the Temple Bar area.
It was in the 70’s while we were walking around, which is hot for Ireland! I am SO glad we stopped at Cloud Nine for gelato, because it cooled us off a bit and the pink decor was too cute to pass up. I ordered a scoop of Nutella and Mint Chocolate Chip. Yum! After that, we got back to the hotel and had a welcome cocktail reception with Brian’s work.
The next morning, we arrived to the company breakfast bright and early and we were the first ones! Ha, ha! In the photo in the right you’ll see my Dublin Uniform, basically a waterproof windbreaker by Vuori, my oversized Lululemon belt bag and my Vessi waterproof shoes.
After breakfast, we walked over to The House of Mercy and spent the majority of the day learning about Catherine McAuley, who devoted her life to helping the poor and sick in Dublin. You can learn more about Catherine McAuley HERE. I didn’t take a lot of photos while we were here since there was a lot of small group discussion/etc.
Then Brian’s work took us on a tour of the Dublin Castle. The photos above were taken on two separate days, because we walked over to see the Dublin Castle on our first day in town (when it wasn’t rainy and cold! Ha!). Brian’s work had a tour guide that led us inside the castle to show us the rooms.
We got to see the thrown inside the castle and almost all of the chandeliers in the castle (except 1 or 2) are waterford crystal, which is a town outside Dublin.
After we got back to the hotel, we had a little time before we took a bus over to the EPIC Irish Emigration Museum. Here is a photo of us outside the front of the museum. It was a fun night and Brian’s coworkers and their spouses are a lot of fun to hang out with.
The food was really good at the EPIC Museum dinner, we had Beef and Guinness Casserole with a Cheddar Pastry Disc and then they brought out this huge tray of desserts… YUM!
I have 2 more Ireland posts coming up… if you missed it, check out my FIRST post:
Landmarks, Merrion Hotel & Andy Warhol Pop Art Tea – Dublin, Ireland
