Carolyn's Various Travels: Day 1

Despite a 10 hour layover in Chicago (thanks American Airlines for changing the flight schedule after we booked), we made it to Dublin without difficulty. Sailed through passport control which was well staffed and not an automated kisok, and took a shuttle bus into town.

We couldn't check into our AirBnB until after 3:00, so we stopped at a nearby pub for lunch. Apparently we stumbled on a pretty famous one! The Brazen Head is the oldest pub in Ireland. There has been a hostelry on this site since 1198. The Brazen Head first appeared in documents back in 1653. The menu noted that the 'brazen head' refers to 13th century legend of a brass head mounted on marble that could predict the future. The head would answer 'yes' or 'no' (original 8 ball anyone?)

We had a bit of trouble finding a seat and were about to leave when a server pointed us to a 'reserved' seat in the corner that we could take. I'm so glad we were able to eat there. The food was marvelous and it was a nice welcome to Ireland. Bangers and mash, guinness beef stew, and bacon and cabbage, with pints of course.

I was puzzled by the string of numbers after each menu item until I found the key at the bottom of the page. They referenced various allergens.

After lunch we made our way through the center city to our AirBnB. Our route took us right past St Patrick's Cathedral which we were planning to see the next day. We still had time to kill before 3:00, so we decided to check it out. Unfortunately, no luggage allowed, so my sweetie volunteered to stay with the suitcases and sit out in the drizzle. My hero!

The first church of St Patrick was built in 1179. The current building's construction began in 1220 and was consecrated in 1254. It is a gothic style cathedral.

The admission included an audio guide that was pretty well done. It was about 30 mins worth of content that took us throughout the sanctuary and several historical exhibits. The door below caught my attention and was linked to a blood feud between two families. One sought sanctuary at the church. The pursuing family offered them safe passage out of Dublin, but those inside didn't believe the offer. The other family cut a hole in the door of the church and the head of the family stuck his arm in to shake hands on the offer and prove his sincerity. The other family shook on it and the deal was struck. There is a saying today to "chance your arm" that dates back to this event.

In one part of the cathedral, there were many old battle standards hung. These were quite old and clearly falling apart. I've noticed these in other places over the years and I've always wondered about how particular standards were chosen to be hung and when that practice stopped. Sometimes they are in good condition and sometimes not. The audio guide explained that the ones here were hung in honor and the norm was to let them naturally decay as a part of that honor (rather than restoring or preserving them). I thought that was interesting.

The spiral stairs go up to the organ loft. Very cool entry! You could not really see the organ at all. The 4000+ pipes are all behind screens. The organ dates to 1902 with a 1963 renovation and ongoing maintenance.

The front of the sanctuary was unique. I've never seen a church where the wall behind the alter was opened up to the chapel beyond. This was very pretty. Open space with stained glass windows farther back. It really make the alter stand out.

The picture above is taken from the chapel side looking at the cross on the alter and down the full length of the nave.

This is the small chapel beyond the front of the sanctuary.

Above the arched doorway to the left you can just see something hanging from the wall. A closer view (below) shows it to be a cannon ball and a boar's head. These date to the siege of Limerick (1300s). The man killed by the cannon ball is buried nearby in the nave and the boar's head is his family's totem. I've never seen anything quite like this.

Beautiful view from the choir, looking down the nave.

The cathedral was in very bad shape in the 1800's and some thought it would be easier to tear it down and start over than to restore it, but the Guinness family contributed the equivalent of 22 million euros for a significant restoration. It included the tiled floors. I specifically took a picture of the floor before realizing it was new(ish) because it looked so good compared to many others that I've seen.

We made it to our airbnb and napped for an hour or so, then headed off for a tour

of the Guinness Brewery.

The Airbnb is not much to look at from the outside, but very nice inside.

Nice place and centrally located.

I was very curious what was behind the high patio fence, so I climbed up on the storage box and looked over. Every 'yard' of the neighboring properties is similarly highly fenced in. They are a bit sunken from the elevation of the road on the front of the property with an 'elevated' access way along the property line.

The brewery had an extensive display of historic and more modern details about how Guinness was made. The exact chemistry behind it was interesting. I never knew much about the process before. The grain is soaked and germinates. They used to have men using shovels turning it over consistently so all the grain would germinate (its all mechanized now). Its roasted to exactly 232 degrees farenheit - looks like roast coffee beans. The hops are actually flowers that have a preservative quality and helps when the beer is exported.

They had a long video of a master cooper hand making the original wooden barrels for the beer. It was fascinating! Much of the work was done by eye and nearly all of it was done by hand. The guy in the video had arms that looked like a blacksmith's. The inside of the barrel is charred with hot cinders to keep the oak from flavoring the beer.

The emblem of Guinness is the Irish Brian Boru harp. The one below dates from 1702. When Ireland became an independent state and adopted the harp as a symbol of the country, it had to use one in reverse image to avoid copyright infringement on the Guinness logo.

The collection include a lot of old marketing campaigns. I have no memory of the fish on a bike from 1996, but I liked the sentiment of it. It was to challenge existing 'wisdom' of famous quotes... "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle".

At the very end of the tour, you go to the tasting room which sits 7 stories up and

has a great 360 view of the city.

I wish I could have seen the actual factory, but apparently those are very rare tours.

There are 5 Guinness breweries in the world: Dublin, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, and Malaysia. Samples are regularly sent to headquarters in Ireland to make sure standards are consistent and maintained.