The first stop was Dublin Castle. It was started in 1204 by King John of England on the site of the pre-existing Viking town of Dyfflin. The original Irish name of the area was Dubh Linn which means "black pool" from the dark bog water of the River Liffey which bisects the city.
Inside the castle there were several artists working on giant sand structures, one of which is pictured here. We had seen the previous day people doing sand carvings on the sidewalks, usually depicting dogs. We had hoped to see the Chester Beatty Library but this being Sunday it was closed in the morning. We just walked the grounds and did not enter the buildings.
Next on our mini-tour was St Patricks Cathedral which was close by. Beautiful gardens as you can see. Again this being Sunday morning we couldn't get in this time as a mass was in progress. In the church yard there was a statue of Arthur Guinness from 1759, the creator of the Porter or Stout beer. This is a natural lead in to our next stop.
We were't really interested in doing a tour of the facility but it seems many others were. The current building was restored in 1904 . There are over 10million glasses of Guinness consumed every day. Well I did my part yesterday by having one of them.
So our magical mystery tour continued and this time we stopped and did the tour. The picture pretty much speaks for itself. The Irish word for whiskey is "uisce beatha" and means water of life. Say no more! They no longer distill the whiskey here , it is done in Cork. But the tour took us through the various steps in the process even telling us how Irish Whiskey is different from Scotch Whisky. NB the difference in spelling of the whiskey words. The main differences are the sources of water, the methods used to dry the barley, and the number of times it is distilled. Three times in the case of the Irish Whiskey and it has a nice smooth taste. As you can see from the picture even Deen had a taste although I got to finish both hers and mine. We had it neat with ice.
After the tour here we hopped back on the HOHO and we returned to Trinity College to buy and mail some post cards. Walking back to our shuttle we encountered a sign outside a store that we couldn't believe but there it was. Canadian readers of this blog and visitors to Canada will recognize it. Who knew they would be here in downtown Dublin. Sadly we didn't have time to go in and order a double-double.
We did make it back to the ship before it sailed away and I checked my email. In yesterday's post I mentioned the story teller at the Brazen Head Pub and his intention to send email copies of his stories and his notes to me. Well there were 2 mails from this gentleman fulfilling his promise. He also indicated he would be willing to help in any future trips to Ireland
and to do Skype calls of his stories to any schools that wanted to do so. Impressive!
I'd certainly like to return to Ireland one day and see the countryside. Touring a city only gives you one perspective of a country and we would both like to see more of this land.
Monday will be a sea day as we head north to the Faroe Islands for Tuesday.
Location:Dublin, Ireland
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