We did the on-off bus this day and stopped at a very beautiful park. Nice day so all the Dubliners are out.
We had a local day today and it was a good one. I had a lot of 'Ireland' shopping to do and had heard of something called the Kilkinney Design area in downtown Dublin. The Dublin Green On/Off bus took us there. We have enjoyed these buses in numerous cities we have traveled because they generally offer a knowledgeable tour guide/driver and an inexpensive means to get from point A to point B in a relatively large city. And so the day was passed with leisurely shopping, lunch in a pub and finally a tour of the Guinness Brewery or perhaps better put the Guinness Dynasty.
there is a science to pulling a Guinness...
Oh my gosh it covers many square blocks! Just the Guinness store is 8 floors and shows the history of the brewery. The big piece of information I retained was that when the original family leased the property in Dublin and started their business they signed a lease for 45 pounds a month with no inflation clause for 9000 years. The folks offering the lease failed to catch that and the Guinness family lives with that yet today. I don't even care for Guinness but because it is such a part of the fabric of the Irish culture we went up top to the room with a view 'Zero Gravity' and had a free pint. I am fascinated with the art of 'pulling a pint of Guinness'. How it looks when they pull it 3/4 full and it is fun to watch it during the 2 minute wait as it settles prior to that final top off. But even after I had my pint I failed to understand the attraction, for me it tasted like coffee and cigarettes in liquid form!
As we left the Guinness tour we grabbed the train back to our little neighborhood and in an effort to satisfy John's craving for Fish n' Chips we found our way to a local pub where we both enjoyed that traditional pub fare. Delightful close to our evening was a walk along the sea on this warm summer evening watching the locals enjoying their summer.
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