Day 3 Dublin - Kilkenny - Killarney

We are leaving Dublin today to take a drive around some of the countryside of Ireland. Leaving at about 9am we headed out south through the suburbs and drove through the undulating countryside into County Wicklow. The rolling fields are so green and there is a plenty of livestock and a wide variety of crops in the fields.

We drove for about forty minutes before stopping in the town of Balltinglass. This town had some significance to my family as it is where my great, great, great grandparents Patrick Hogarty and Elizabeth Nowlan were married in 1828.

The town has a large ruin of a church that was used until 1840 when a new church was built in 1840. We were able to walk amongst the ruin and took plenty of photos of it.

 

There is a river running through the village and there was sandbags placed near buildings near the river so it must have recently had some flooding.

From there we moved travelled to Tullow, and drove around the town stopped to take photos of some pubs and other buildings.

We also stopped at chain supermarket similar to the Aldi chain but it is run by a Polish company. Here Neil bought a 5 litre Heineken barrel which had been produced to promote the European Champions League football tournament and we got some food to have in the car.

We kept moving south getting onto a motorway and into the large city of Kilkenny. We had booked a brewery tour of the Smithwick Brewery. It has been brewing beer on the same site for 301 years. Last year was the start of its third century of brewing.

Our tour guide Rohnan has worked for the brewery for 26 years and is very passionate about the strong family atmosphere that built the brewery over the years. He told us the Smithwick family were very innovative brewers and often travelled to Belgium and Germany in the 1800’s to learn new brewing methods and bought many Belgium and German brewers to Kilkenny to work in the brewery. To their credit it at allowed the company to prosper whilst others around it faltered.

We got a very extensive history of both the brewery and of the Saint Francis Abbey church which is part of the brewery complex. The abbey was built by the Franciscan monks and completed in 1231. The monks also brewed beer on the site at that time.

A tour of the brewery site and into the brewing building to see the process of the brewing followed and then we returned to the brewery cellar which is now used as a bar and function room. Rohnan, then showed us all how to pour a pint of Smithwicks and talked of its distinctive red colour and flavour. The tour which is promoted as a one and a half hour tour took us nearly two and a half hours by the time Rohnan had allowed for a second pint for the boys after the other tourists had left.

Neil presented him with some Great Aussie Beer Shed memorabilia for his excellent lesson in the brewing and other aspects of Smithwicks. We also bought some items from the shop at the completion of the tour.

We walked around that area of the city and took some photos of the buildings and of the pub signs and had drink at a pub called the Pumphouse before leaving Kilkenny. I happened to leave my camera in the pub but realised it was missing after only going about 200 metres so was able to go back and get it.

Travelling on we travelled through a lot more countryside before getting back onto the motorway and driving around the city of Cork. Time was getting on by then and we did not stop in the city but turned west heading for our accommodation for this evening in Killarney. Along the way we stopped in a town called Ballymackeera and had a refreshing drink in The O’Scanaill pub.

The publican, Gerard Scannell, had taken over running the pub after his mother passed away aged 93!!

He was a school teacher prior to that. He showed us a photo of his great, great grandfather Arthur O’Leary who started the pub in 1796. We also talked to the publican’s son who had spent two years in Melbourne working as an Electrician recently.

As time was getting on we moved onto Killarney to our hotel for the night. We arrived 5 minutes before the bistro menu closed for the night so ordered food and sat and watched the European Club Championship final second half. Barcelona defeated Manchester United 3 – 1. We then unpacked the car and Neil and I had a couple more drinks before it was lights out.

Dublin Day 2

Up very early this morning to ensure we are ready for the Guinness Brewery Tour. But firstly there was a hiccup with our hotel bookings before we left Australia and Wotif.com had to re-arrange tonight’s accommodation in a different location to where we have been staying. So therefore we need to get our luggage packed and then need to store it at the current hotel until this afternoon when I am picking up a car for 4 days so we can see some of the countryside. To confuse you even more after our touring we are coming back to stay 2 nights at the original hotel we have been staying in before flying home.

We will not fit all the luggage into the car we have hired so are splitting two cases to put our needed item to take with us and leaving the others at the original hotel till we return on Monday night. I am sure you are confused I had to explain it twice to the boys who are with me!

We had breakfast at 8.00am and then got a taxi to the Guinness Storehouse. When the taxi driver found out we only just arrived in the city he gave us a running commentary on the locations we were passing on the way. Unfortunately we had heard it all the day on our bus tour but it was good to know he had his facts right.

I got him to drop us off at the main entry to the brewery itself so the boys could get some photos of the entry.

We then had to walk around to the rear of the brewery to enter where the tour starts from; this allowed us many photo opportunities in front of various Guinness signs on the brewery buildings.

I will not go into much detail here of the set up of the Guinness Brewhouse displays but you can read about it here where I wrote about it when I was there in 2008.

Our tour was to start at 9.30am and we were first of the public into the brewery today. Our personal tour guide Nick, walked us through to exhibition to explain the history of Guinness to us.

When he asked about our trip and we told him and that I was a Guinness collector he said I would possibly tell him more than he told us. We made our way through the displays listening to his descriptions of various parts of the workings of the brewery. It was a very good tour.

During the tour there were a few opportunities to sample the beer. A small glass of Guinness while getting explanation of the taste,

followed by a lesson in how to pour the perfect pint. This allowed us all to pour a pint and receive a certificate saying we had mastered the craft of pouring a pint of Guinness.

 Of course then the pint had to be consumed. Then at the end of the tour our entry ticket allowed us to get another free pint. Of course with me not drinking it allowed the others to share an extra pint. Then whilst we were standing in the bar we talked to some other people who even gave us some of their free tickets.

Then it was off to lunch in the Brewery restaurant where we were provided with free lunch, drinks included, so another free pint of Guinness was consumed with the meal.

It was then off to the Brewery Shop to pick up some memorabilia. Once this was paid for it was time to finish up at Guinness, we were actually in the brewery for 6 hours.

It was then time for me to go pick up the hire car we had booked so we caught a taxi directly from the Brewery to the car hire place and got the car.

Driving back to our accommodation for tonight should have been an easy task but we made it difficult by deciding to use a map of Dublin we had instead of putting on the GPS unit that came with the car!! A lot of the roads in the area we had to drive were one way which was not obvious on the tourist map we had. So a trip that should have taken about 10 minutes took about 25 minutes, but we did get to see some more of Dublin as we were driving.

Our new accommodation for tonight is Staunton’s on the Green. It is a three storey Georgian Style guest house on the eastern side of a large public garden which is called St Stephen’s Green. That is also the name of the suburb area. We were split up into our rooms and had about an hour of time to get settled in before heading out again.

Tonight we are going to a football (soccer) international. Dublin is hosting a four nation tournament called the Carling’s Four Nations Cup. The four nations playing are Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Tonight’s game is between Wales and Northern Ireland. I had purchased the tickets on line before leaving home.

From my 2008 trip when I watched both a Gaelic football and a Hurling match, I am on a mailing list with Ireland’s main ticketing agency and tried to purchase the tickets directly but there was no option for people to purchase tickets internationally. I had sent them an email stating that I could not purchase the tickets on-line and they actually changed the whole website ticketing page to allow me to do so.

We took off for the game on foot knowing we would need at some stage to get a taxi to complete the trip. We stopped at Riley’s Pub on the way and checked out the fine looking old bar.

Whilst checking the walls for interesting photos, stories etc I saw a newspaper article saying that this was actually a new pub in a building that used to be a chemist shop. It was built in the old style and looked exactly like it was very old not like the knock out style of Irish pubs you see around the world.
Getting a taxi we arrived at the ground about 30 minutes before kickoff. I had to go the ticket office to pick up the tickets. Unfortunately for me the box office was not at the stadium but about a 10 minute walk from there. So off I went to pick up the tickets.

Safely back with them I was informed due to the small amount of tickets sold they had not opened the section of the stadium where we supposed to sit. So instead of sitting on the side of the ground in a great position we were sent to an area directly behind the goal.

The game was held at Aviva Stadium which is a brand new stadium built on the site of Lansdowne Road ground, which is the home ground of Irish Rugby.

I had been there previously in 1991 to watch games at the 1991 Rugby World Cup. The old ground had a lot of atmosphere that this giant concrete stadium will never get but the facilities are so much better. In 1991 we sat inside the fence around the ground on wooden seats they had put in especially for the world cup so they could get more people into the ground.

The soccer game itself was not real exciting with Wales winning 2 – 0. It was a good experience to see the match the only thing was it was a dry ground, there was no alcohol sold at the ground so the boys had a chance dry out a bit!!!!!

After the game we came back to the guest house via a supermarket where we got some supplies, once again it was after 10 o’clock so the beer section of the supermarket was closed, another wasted opportunity. I was however able to get another 4 Pringles tubes for my collection.

Everyone turned in straight away and got some time to re-charge our batteries for the three day road trip we are heading off to tomorrow.

Dublin Day 1

Waking up early I was able to write up a lot of the blog post for yesterday and look up news from home. We had all got some much needed sleep after the long haul travelling here.

We got sorted and headed down for breakfast. It is served in a two room in the cellar of the building. It seems strange but it is a reasonably well set out area but it would be impossible to access with the narrow staircases etc for elderly or people with walking difficulties. The food was slightly better than average with plenty of cold options or a full Irish breakfast option. The staff did their work very well and were quick to supply the hot meals and run around servicing the guests. While we were sitting at breakfast the owner of the hotel actually came into the room and walked around to each table and introduced himself and spoke to everyone. It was certainly a surprise to meet him. Definitely good P.R. for the hotel.

After having breakfast we headed off down O’Connell Street with a bitter and quite strong wind behind our backs.

Above & Below - The Spire of Dublin  - 121 metres tall (just on 400 feet)

Dave had to do some posting back home so we headed to the main GPO building which is a grand old building in the centre of the city.

We then worked our way to the Hop on Hop-off City bus tour. It is a green double decker bus service that takes you around the city giving commentary and stopping at all the major city landmarks. You could get on and off as often as you like and then ticket allowed for a 24 hour time period using the bus. We got it on at about 10.30am and the bus runs till 7.00pm each day.
It started drizzling rain as we got on the bus and luckily to front of the upstairs section is enclosed so we were protected from the rain. It did not however protect us from the bitter wind. A circuit of the bus route takes about 1 hour 30 minutes . It was a great way to get some bearings of the city and gave a detailed description of the history and architecture of Dublin.

The following photos are from the bus trip,

Interesting Bus Ad

Another Delivery of the Black Gold

Another Local Favorite - Galway Hooker Beer

We got back to the start of the tour point and hopped off the bus and decided to get some refreshments at Madigans pub.

It is a very typical Irish pub well set out and a lot of memorabilia around the walls. Neil was able to get some beer glasses off the bar manager. In return for some of his Aussie Beer Shed memorabilia.

We stopped for a while and spoke with the bar staff who told us of an Aussie themed pub called the Woolshed Baa which was about 500 metres away in Parnell Street. I had actually been to that pub on my last visit but had actually forgotten about it.

We made our way there via a chemist and a electronics store for essential maintenance items and I was finally able to get a card reader for my camera memory card. Although it was quite a bright day the wind was bitterly cold.

The Woolshed is a large bar with pool tables and giant screen televisions. It is a good sports bar. We were greeted by two barmaids, Emma from Australia and Tineke from New Zealand. We were able to relax and have a good lunch in the pub. Talking to Emma and Tineke, we told them of our beer collecting hobby and they spoke with their boss and then gave us a huge amount of beer gear. 14 different beer glasses, four sleaves of 100 coasters, a Heineken shirt, a Fosters hat and some beer sponsored football programs and two large silk banners, one of which is a good Guinness one for my collection.

We stayed there for about an hour and a half before leaving to walk back to the hotel to drop off all the beer gear we had got in the last two hours. On the way back to the hotel, Neil went off searching for Antique shops and we went via a Tesco supermarket to get some bottled water.
I also managed to pick up 9 different (new to me) Pringles chips tubes to add to my collection of them. Whilst walking back to the hotel I dropped my backpack and cracked the lens housing on the camera. It is working but is not in very good health. IT will need to be replaced when I get home.

Back at the hotel Barry and Dave went for a cleansing beer while I typed up some notes. We decided not to go out again in the couple of hours before we had to go out for tonight’s Irish dinner show we have booked into.

When it was time to go we caught a taxi down to the Arlington Hotel which is aside the River Liffey. We had paid 29 euro per head for a three course Irish dinner and live Irish music played by a three piece band. They played for 2 hours with a 20 minute break in which time a 5 member Irish dance group came on and performed. We had seats in the front row right on the stage edge and Dave had to duck a few times when the dancer’s feet swung out into the crowd.

It was a great night, with plenty of sing song Irish music to join in with and plenty of crowd involvement.

During the night some Scottish people came into the show and they were there for a good party. They were a great laugh and we shared some good banter with them. They are in town for the Soccer International Tournament.

At the end of the show the band came down and spoke to us and we had a good chat with them. Neil and Dave chatted with the Bar manager and once again out came all these glasses, coasters, advertising posters and signs. I scored a good Guinness bar top sign.

By then it was half past 11 and we headed off back to our hotel and have a beer at the hotel bar before heading off to sleep about 1am.

Tomorrow is a huge day with our Guinness Tour and then we are off to a soccer international which is part of a four nations championship, the game we are seeing is between Wales and Northern Ireland. The other two teams in the tournament are Ireland and Scotland.