Weekend in Dublin: Natural History Museum

We had a bit of time but were too late for the Castle tour so decided to pop into the Natural History Museum. By the time we got there we had only 15 minutes, but it was free entry on Sunday so we dashed in to get a quick look.

The most impressive. Giant Irish deer, now extinct

A red badger! Had to get a photo of Bucky's cousin.

The mailboxes in Ireland are green (UK they are red)

A final toast to our Dublin weekend - Irish coffee!

Weekend in Dublin: Guinness Storehouse Tour

You can't go to Dublin without hearing about Guinness. The family has contributed a lot to the history and success of the city and nowhere is that more celebrated than the Guinness Storehouse tour. The building itself is shaped like a large Guinness glass and you move from bottom to top exploring the story of Guinness and getting to taste some of the 'black gold'. It was a fun experience and Guinness really does taste better in Ireland.

The ground floor was a huge gift shop - everything you could possibly imagine with a Guinness logo on it. The first floor (photos below) walked through the ingredients of Guinness: water, hops, malted barley, yeast.

The second floor walked us through the brewing process. The tour was completely self guided - a brilliant approach as they could fit twice the people in for each tour. And at $20 a pop, that's a pretty good return on investment for them.

about an hour

The next floor was all about distribution. We saw how the barrels used to be made by hand through an interesting video and also how Guinness developed a revolutionary way to transport to the far reaches of the globe (yep, it's that rattle you hear in the cans that does it - well, and some other scientific explanation). On this floor we also had our first tasting, which was served in tiny cute little Guinness glasses. As pretentious as any wine tasting we've been to!

The next floor was all about their marketing and how it has evolved over time.  Brian and I remember seeing these kinds of 'Guinness is good for you' advertisements in Guinea, West Africa when we were in the Peace Corps.

And the top floor is a panoramic bar where you can get your free pint, which is included with your ticket. Crowded and a bit warm because of the sun, but the Guinness was oh so good.

Don't worry, you get a full pint. They fill to here and then let the glasses rest before they fill them the rest of the way to make sure you get a full pint.

Weekend in Dublin: Castle and Churches

With only a weekend, we didn't have time to tour the castle or any cathedrals, but we did get a few good photos. Enjoy!

Christ Church Cathedral at night

Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle

Christ Church Cathedral walkway over the road

Christ Church Cathedral

I think this is St. Patrick's Cathedral from the bus window.

We would like to go back and visit some of these spots we didn't have time for. It would also be great to see Dublin in the summer and wander through some of the beautiful parks.

Weekend in Dublin: Kilmainham Goal

One tour we definitely wanted to fit in was the Kilmainham Goal (that's Gaelic for jail and actually pronounced jail). The challenge was there were no tickets left on their website. They did mention that they have a small number of walk up tickets each day, but that you should arrive early as they sell out quickly. So bright and early (for a vacation anyway) we hopped the bus to the jail and were the second ones there. It was a bit chilly to wait, but we were rewarded with tickets on the first walk-in tour. And they did sell out so it was worth the planning ahead.

It's a guided tour which focuses on the history of the goal as well as some of the more famous prisoners - most from the 1916 Easter rebellion when Ireland was working to get rid of British rule. The event left 485 dead and destroyed large areas of Dublin city centre.

This is the outside courtyard where public hangings took place until 1865 (prison was built in 1796). Executions continued in the goal, but not in view of the public.

The goal has now been restored and is a historic landmark and museum of sorts. They run tours almost every hour and it was a busy place even on a random winter Saturday in January.

This prison went through a few upgrades throughout its lifetime, one of which was to give each prisoner his/her own cell. This was one of the first prisons in Europe to adjust its mission from housing prisoners to trying to rehabilitate them. The individual cells, bibles and windows to let light in were all thought to help with this effort.

This hallway is before that renovation and you can get a sense of how small, cramped and dark it was. There was also a belief that air circulating through would reduce sickness and disease so there were open windows along the top which let in a drafty and cold breeze (notice we all still have our coats on!). At this time, there were probably around 4-5 to a cell and during the worst of the potato famine, there could be up to 12! The famine created a huge increase in prisoners as people were purposely trying to get in as it was a way to guarantee regular meals.

This is the newest area of the prison and it might look familiar as it's been used as a movie set quite a few times. The Italian Job (the original one), In the Name of the Father, and U2's song A Celebration to name a few.

Here is one of the cells in this area. Really high ceilings and lots of light.

It was an interesting tour and we were glad we went.

Weekend in Dublin: Irish Whiskey Museum

We had hoped to visit the Jameson Distillery while in town, but it's closed for renovation at the moment so our next best bet was the Irish Whiskey Museum.

We started with an Irish coffee at the little bar as we waited for our tour time to start. Cute little place complete with a feckin ladder!

Nice view from the little cafe of the College Green of Trinity college.

Best Irish coffee we've ever had!

The tour itself was really informative as we walked through the history of whiskey in Dublin. Starting with pot stills made in people's homes (illegal) to the Victorian pubs you see pictured here.

We were told you can tell an authentic Victorian pub by their ceilings. So pretty.

Our tour ended with a nice guided whiskey tasting, and while I can't say I'm a huge fan, I could definitely taste the difference and identify my preference.