day 8 – dublin part 2

We were spending our day apart from my folks and started out the day getting a virtual cache at The Spire of Dublin aka “The Stiffy on the Liffey.”

   

the view down O’Connell Street.

After our short trek, down the street, we got tickets for the Hop on, Hop off bus.  Our first stop was the Guinness Storehouse.  On the way there, we passed several pretty examples of the Georgian doors for which Dublin is known.

I’ve been to the Guinness Storehouse before and hadn’t been terribly impressed.  Somehow it was different with someone who is obsessed with Guinness.  The tour starts with an explanation and discussion of the ingredients that make good Guinness – barley, hops and water.

Will playing with the barley.

 
Water – it doesn’t come from the Liffey as is often rumored.  The tour continues on through the various stages of brewing.  Pretty shiny kegs…

Old school kegs.

An old Toucan lamp.

Next up was probably Will’s favorite part of the whole trip – the “Pour the Perfect Pint” experience wherein they teach you to pour the perfect pint of Guinness which, of course, you then get to drink.

 

one happy husband!  

Even though we’d begun our days separately, we ran into my folks at the Storehouse.  They actually came into learn to pour their own pints as we were getting ready to leave.

Mom took a sip but in the end, Will got to have another.

Then we headed up to the Gravity Bar on the top floor where Will got to have his third pint!  He was really happy about that.

 

See?  Happy husband

Afterward we hopped back on the bus for our next stop – Kilmainham Gaol.

 

Later that evening we met back up with my parents to go on a musical pub crawl.  It was something that in all their trips, my parents had never been on.  For a chilly, rainy, nearly off-season evening, it was a well-attended crawl and quite enjoyable.  Lots of traditional and fun songs.

our guides and musicians for the evening.

ok, these guys were actually playing while we were eating dinner at Oliver St John Gogarty’s Pub which is where the pub crawl starts.

Lastly, I’d been traveling all over the country with my pillow from home and this is what we found when we came in for the night:

My pillow all fluffed up and made up on the bed with the rest of the pillows

Day 1: Arrival, Adare, Tralee
Day 2: Dingle Peninsula Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Day 3: Kilarney, Muckross House
Day 4: Rock of Cashel
Day 5: Tipperary and Waterford
Day 6: Wexford and Vale of Avoca
Day 7: Dublin Part 1