Ireland Recap Part 2

I am back for another recap of Ireland. You can see Part 1 here.

We met for breakfast in our hotel each morning, but on this morning, I headed over to a little coffee shop (The Bakehouse) across the street for a latte and almond croissant. We had a meeting to get to, so we took a taxi to the south side of Dublin. We were there for the day and worked. Once we were done, we headed back to the hotel to change. Then we headed to the Guinness Brewery. We walked there from our hotel which was only about a mile away. The tour cost 25 Euros, but it was worth it. You walk around about 6 stories. Each story is different. There is a story dedicated to the advertising of Guinness, one to the brew process, one for a small tasting, one has a large store, another has a learning area where you can learn to pour a pint of Guinness the right way and another that is the gravity bar. This bar is on the top floor and it has an almost 360 degree view of Dublin. You can see many landmarks while you drink a freshly poured Guinness pint (included with your ticket).

 The Guinness Brewery lease. It was for around 10,000 years or so.

 Factory mills

Guinness Brewery art piece. 360 degree art piece which was really cool.

You had the choice between the learning to pour your Guinness (and drinking it) or going to the gravity bar. You can walk in both areas, but you only get one beer. We chose the gravity bar.

After going through the tour, we headed back down to the first floor to check out the Guinness store. We bought a few things each, but my favorite was the Guinness dark chocolate bar. It has Guinness in it and definitely tastes like Guinness. Can I just say that Guinness beer tastes so different in Ireland. It is sooooo good. I drank Guinness anytime I had a beer and it renewed my love for Guinness. Now if only I could get a proper Guinness here in the states.

After our brewery tour, we headed to Teelings Distillery for a Irish Whiskey tour. This was a short walk from the Guinness Brewery.

There was three levels of the tour which were based on what you wanted to taste. They had one with the Teeling Small Batch and a whiskey cocktail for 15 Euros, another with the Small Batch, Small Grain and Single Malt for 20 Euros and finally the last with the Small Batch, Single Malt, Vintage Single Malt and Limited Edition Single Cask for 30 Euros. We chose the 30 Euro one because go big or go home. Plus I love trying whiskey's.

While we waited for our tour to start, we grabbed a sausage roll and coffee in the bakery and walked around an area where you learn more about Irish Whiskey and its role in Ireland.

Then the tour started. We went into a room and learned about the owners and the distillery before heading into the distillery. From here you learn about the process of making whiskey.

We were able to smell barley, the fermentation process and see the three stills. From there we went into a cask room to see many barrels of whiskey.

Then from there, we went into the tasting room. I LOVED all the whiskey's we tried. They taught us how to drink Irish whiskey properly, so you can really taste and smell the whiskey. You don't want to put your nose in the glass to smell it. You keep it a couple inches away from your nose and pass back and forth so you can really smell it.

Then you drink a small sip, taste it in your mouth and then exhale out (loudly) to get the full flavor. It was funny to watch this happen, but I have been doing that ever since. I even taught Rory about it.

 That is water in the back just in case you need to add a drop or two to your whiskey to tone it down.

After the tasting was done, I bought some items from the store and then we took a cab back to our hotel. We dropped off our things and went to an Italian restaurant (Bar Italia) for some pizza and appetizers. After pigging out, we headed to the Temple Bar area to go bar hopping a bit and stumbled into an amazing bar. We were upstairs getting a beer and saw/heard music playing downstairs. So we headed down and there was live Irish music being played. Everyone was dancing and having a great time. We sat there for a long time, singing, having Guinness beers and taking it all in. It was so much fun.

The walk between our hotel and the Temple Bar area

 I took a picture of this to show to Rory.

After pouring the beers, they would stack them for each order.

After many beers, we walked back to our hotel and called it a night because we had a flight the next day to catch to England.

And there you have my Dublin, Ireland experience. I wish I was there longer to experience more, but I am so glad I got to spend the few days there that I did. I can't wait to go back and explore more of the country side.

Dublin, Ireland Part 1

Where do I even begin with my Ireland and England trip? I have sooooo many photos and recommendations. I am not sure how many posts this will take to say it all, but I plan on writing until it seems long enough and then I will do the same with the rest of the photos/trips.

Let me rewind to the start of my trip. I left on a Tuesday afternoon with a stop in LA, a three hour layover in London and another flight into Dublin.

This was the amazing sky on my flight from London to Dublin

We arrived in Dublin around 5 pm (on Wednesday) which means we hit traffic on the way to our hotel. Once I arrived, I showered, unpacked a bit and got ready to go out to dinner. Since we were exhausted, we opted for a pub. I didn't take any photos, but it was a decent meal for our first night in. I got a play off of Shepherd's Pie and a Kearney's Pale/Blonde Ale. This was in the Temple Bar area which is such a fun spot to hang out in. Plus our hotel was across the river (a 5 minute walk).

Thursday we had work and then explored. Our first stop was Trinity College. This college is similar to our Harvard. I bought the girls shirts from the school store. The campus was soooo beautiful. Plus it holds the Book of Kells, which we took that tour. Totally worth it.

 Trinity College

Trinity College

Tickets to the Book of Kells tour were 13 Euros. We purchased our tickets and took the self guided tour. You will read all about the Book of Kells, tour the old Library where the Book of Kells is housed and you can see two of the four volumes (no pictures allowed in the Book of Kells room). The Book of Kells is in Latin and color and it is truly beautiful. 

After you look at the Book of Kells, you go into the Long Room. This area houses over 20,000 books, and so many of them are covered in cobwebs and falling apart. There are also many other books on display. I would definitely visit if you are going to be in Dublin.

Once you are finished, you can go to the gift shop or leave and walk through the Trinity College Campus.

From the campus, we made our way to the Kilmainham Gaol Jail and Museum. We got there and the tour had already started, so we went to the museum after purchasing our tickets (9 Euros). The museum is about three stories and it has so much history. You can read about many prisoners, see handwritten letters, uniforms, listen to stories and get a feel of how life was in prison. 

From there, we went back to the main building to check in for our tour. First, we went into the court area.

People did sit on top of the table in the chair for their hearing/sentencing.

From there, we walked to an altar to watch a short video on the jail.

From here, we went into the oldest part of the jail. This area was cold. There were no closed windows, just bars. Also, each jail cell could house 10 or more people. They crowded people in this wing. Even children were in this prison

As we made our way through, the tour guide tells you about infamous prisoners, which cells they were housed in and what eventually happens to each of them.

From there, we made our way to the newer wing. You may have seen this area in movies such as In the Name of the Father and The Escapist.

After leaving the jail cells area, you go outside and learn about the execution areas and some very sad stories. The tour was amazing and again, I would recommend it.

After the jail tour, we headed back to our hotel and then out to dinner to O'Neills Pub and Kitchen. Our taxi driver recommended this. It was super busy, but so much fun. It is cafeteria style, but you can order from the pub menu and have it brought out to your table as well. This place was huge. Two stories and the food was really good. We had a couple beers here, but then walked around Temple Bar area to walk off our food and see more of the night life and area.

And that is where I will leave off until next time.

European Trip Part 5

I figured it was time to finish my European trip recaps, so I am here for the final installment: Gibraltar. You can find parts 1 through four here, here, here and here.

I had never been to Gibraltar, but heard it was pretty amazing. The flight in was pretty cool as I found out that they close down the road to let planes fly in and out. And there is a cemetery right next to the runway since they don't have much space for one in the country. Gibraltar is tiny, but full of so much history. If you know anything about Gibraltar, then you know that the country mostly consists of a large rock with swiss cheese like holes in it. These holes were used throughout many wars.

We arrived on Sunday September 18th in the afternoon. After taking a short taxi ride to our hotel, we settled in and I hit the uber small and awfully hot gym. The gym overlooked the pool and I would have much rather been there than in the gym. After a good run, I showered and got ready to walk with my co-worker to dinner.

We headed to Raj's Curry House for some amazing Indian food. Seriously soooo good and cheap. After dinner, we walked around a bit. We went through their main drag (shops and restaurants) all the way to their center square area.

After walking off our Indian food, we headed back to the hotel. Since my hotel room had about 8 channels and most of them were British or soccer, I decided to hang out in the bar downstairs with a glass of wine and people watched. So many interesting people came through the bar and lobby.

Monday morning we met up for breakfast and it wasn't that great, so I walked across the street for a large latte and called that breakfast. We worked all day and then walked back from the office.

Side note: there is a barrier wall in the middle of Gibraltar and we had to get some directions on areas you could walk up the stairs so we didn't have to walk to the end (almost the entire country) just to make our way all the way back.

We stopped in a beautiful park which is one of the only areas that has green grass on it.

Since we had the evening off, we decided to go on the Rock of Gibraltar tour. My co-worker had been on it, but I had never been. So we took the group shuttle up the rock and made four stops. The first was a beautiful look out.

 That is Spain across the way

Next, we headed up to the caves. These caves were used in many wars and now is the area where you can have concerts, weddings and events.

 The caves with amphitheater seating

On the way out of the caves and back to our shuttle, we saw this guy hanging out on the stairs.

There are monkeys all over the Rock of Gibraltar. We were told to not bring food on the trip, to not touch the monkeys and to keep our belongings close to us. They love to steal food, purses and backpacks.

We got back in the shuttle and headed to the top lookout point. There were a ton of monkeys here and  the views were beyond gorgeous. My co-worker had a monkey jump on his back at the very top.

 Chillin

 Looking out towards Morocco

 Looking out towards Morocco and Egypt

We got back in our shuttle and headed to the last stop, the tunnels. These tunnels were also used during the war and overlook the airport runway and Spain.

 View from a lookout point

 The tunnels go way down

 Spain and the airport runway

We got back in the shuttle and headed back down to our drop off point. During our shuttle ride, the driver told us a bunch of history on Gibraltar. It was well worth the $25 or so US dollars.

That evening, we went to Paparazzi Cafe and Restaurant for pizza, pasta and beers. We also walked around and grabbed gelato while we were out shopping.

Tuesday morning, I went for a walk to grab coffee and pick up a few last minute gifts for the girls. Then it was time to head to the airport. We had to fly back to London and stay the night as it is hard to get out of Gibraltar....like two flights a day on British Airways hard.

We got into London and spent 2 1/2 hours going through customs just to get our bags and walk to the Hilton that was connected to the airport. We had the concierges lounge, so we had drinks and appetizers in there before having dinner in the hotel. No many options around. You have food in the airport or your hotel. After dinner, I watched some tv and then headed to their gym for a quick workout.

Wednesday morning, we were up bright and early to meet for breakfast. After breakfast, we got notice that our flight was 3 hours late. So we hung out in our hotel rooms until it was closer to the time to leave. Only to find out our flight ended up being 4 hours and 2 minutes late. Luckily we had a 5 hour layover in San Francisco and we barely made our flight home.

We got home Thursday and it felt great to be home, with my family and not living out of a suitcase. But it was seriously one of the best work trips I had been on....minus the food poisoning.

And there you have it. My European Trip concludes. Now I want to go back and explore even more.