Unlike the day before, today dawned dry though a little cloudy as we navigated our way into central Dublin and across the Liffey in order to get to the Guinness Storehouse. Miche had read in a brochure that as it was the Guinness 250 celebration year, at 11am each day there was a special tour which explored parts of the brewery that normal tours didn’t. Ms V’s navigation skills were well switched on and we found street parking close to the Guinness Factory with time to spare so a visit to the Guinness Store was in order. One of the walls of the entry area was lined with unfilled samples of Guinness bottles down the ages.
The Storehouse
 Guinness Bottles Down The Ages |
 Do You Recognise Any Of These?
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Finally our tour guide Michael arrived and distributed a headphone set to each of the tour members and we were off to check out the copy of the 9000 year lease that Arthur Guinness had signed some 250 years ago for the factory site. This enduring lease which was set a 45pound per year has now been bought out but was otherwise excellent value.
 The Guinness Tourist
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 The Guinness Lease
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The Storehouse, the site of the original brewery is a heritage listed building that has now been modified to house the displays that tells the story of how Guinness is brewed, marketed, and distributed worldwide. The displays range over five floors ending at the Gravity lounge some seven floors above the street and a enclosed in a glass fronted shape of a pint glass.
At the bottom level we checked out and sampled some of the Guinness ingredients, barley, water, hops and yeast. The water display, a very noisy waterfall drawing water from the nearby Wicklow Mountains, was particularly spectacular though not everyone enjoyed tasting the roasted barley which was a little like eating dried coffee beans.
Ms V Under The Waterfall
Another eye-catching display was the large stack of barrels in the coopering area. Though Guinness now use stainless steel throughout the brewing process both to brew and ship their product, up until the 1970′s oak barrels were used exclusively for the latter task. All of these barrels were produced in-house and the coopers shop was one of the most skilled areas of the factory. Reputedly the stored stack of barrels was so large that pilots of planes flying into Dublin Airport used it as a reference point when coming in to land.
A Stack Of Guinness
On our way up through the “world’s largest pint glass”, (Michael our guide made sure we remembered this by repeating it on just about every floor), we got to taste a little of the brew before finally being taken into a special room that the other tours missed out on. Here we got to taste the three different brews that Guinness presently produces, the standard Guinness, an Extra Stout variety and a 250 years celebratory Guinness that is only available in a few countries one of which strangely is not Ireland. All at our table agreed that the standard Guinness was the preferred drop.
Three Likely Guinness Types
At this stage our informative guide Michael left us to explore for ourselves the final couple of floors including the Gravity Lounge, at one stage the highest room in Dublin. From here you could take in panoramic views of the city extending out to the south to the Wicklow Mountains. We also got to sample a free pint of Guinness or in Ms V’s case, a bottle of soft drink whilst we took in the view. Amongst the quite large crowd in the lounge not all the pint glasses poured were consumed, many sitting almost still full but abandoned on tables. Mickey and Mr P are sure we saw one young chap take advantage of this scoring more than one free tipple.
On the way out Ms V spotted a copy of the harp that is the Guinness marketing symbol and reputedly one used by St Patrick.
Did St Pat Play This Harp?
Some three hours after arriving at the Storehouse we arrived back at the car parked on the street. Having to move we decided to navigate to a multi-storey carpark which wa not as easy as first thought. The majority of inner Dublin is made up now of one way streets that were not otherwise indicated on our map. In addition, by early afternoon the traffic was quite busy so as a result our “short”parking move proved quite a testing drive but we soon found a spot and then took in lunch. Mr P and Ms V decided to head over to Dublin City Hall where there is a museum of the history of the city of Dublin. Through a range of static and audio visual displays we learnt more about Viking history then the conquering influence of the English in various waves followed by independence. Though the temperature outside was only in the low 20′s, combined with the high humidity from the rain of the previous day, the underground display rooms in the city hall were quite stuffy. On more than one occasion both Mr P and Ms V had to watch one of the videos a couple of times to review the excerpts missed when our eyelids dipped for a second or three.
The dome in the City Hall upper area was particularly spectacular having been recently fully restored. Back on the street Mr P spotted a number of plaques over doors and other places. These commemorate spots where Irish patriots have been killed during and since the 1916 Easter Uprising. Across the street Mr P also spotted a couple taking in the evening airs by sitting on their window ledge.
 Two Dublin Swords: One Greater, One Lesser |
 City Hall Dome
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 Martyrs Plaque
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 Couple Taking In The Evening Airs
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Wandering back through the Temple Bar area and some attractive pubs bedecked with flower planters we came across a music group setting up to busk. Catching up with M&M on tha’penny bridge we went back to find the music had started so we joined the watching throng to listen in for 30 minutes or so before wandering back through the Temple Bar to a pub that had been recommended by work colleagues of Mickey. Along the way we saw a couple of other buskers plying their trade.
The pub, The Porterhouse, proved a good choice as we got the chance to watch the last few games of the Roddick-Murray tennis match for which Roddick’s victory gained quite a lot of applause from patrons.
Temple Bar Floral Displays
Having enjoyed a nice meal we made our way back to the car for what turned out to be a nightmarish trip back to the Uni. With our way constantly blocked by either traffic or the no turn policy from most of the main streets and with a map that didn’t show all of the streets nor none of their directional flow, combined with the fact that street signs if present are all on the sides of buildings often hidden amongst an array of other signs and artefacts it was all hands on deck as far as navigation was concerned. Just as we seemed to be heading in the right direction a siren alerted us to the ambulance closing fast behind us. Seeking to move out of his way we were then confronted by a cyclist who had turned illegally from a street to our right and was now heading directly for us. With a little bit of bad language from within the car we somehow managed to miss him and get out of the way of the ambulance. In the process however we travelled across an intersection where we needed to turn and as a result were once again effectively lost. Fortunately Miche recognised the Guinness Storehouse in the distance down a side street and we managed to navigate to a familiar street and congratulating ourselves make our way across the river heading for the Uni.
Unfortunately the congratulations were a little premature and we managed to miss a vital turn. Once again finding ourselves in unfamiliar territory and fast heading out of town, we decided to keep on this route to meet up with the ring road which we then used to get us back to the airport and the now familiar road heading back into Dublin and the Uni. Exhausted from all of this road trauma, sleep came easily.
