Dublin Bound
This morning we were up at 0415 to get ready to leave the house by 0500 for our flight to Dublin. We said our goodbyes to Julie & Paul and dragged ourselves around Heathrow for a bit. Of course Claire got pulled over by security again for her hand luggage. All they were interested in was swabbing the packet of Skip-Bo cards thankfully.
Arrived in Dublin after a nice short flight and made it to the hotel. Managed to get an early check in for a small fee (totally worth paying) and thought we might update the blog. Gordos computer had other ideas. After an unhelpful trip to the Apple Store Gordo managed to fix it herself after much muttering and head banging.
After our trek to the Apple store and a quick bite to eat, it was time to head back to the hotel to drop off said problem computer and get ready for our walking tour of Dublin.
We walked to the pub to meet the tour group and guide and then we were on our way. We went and saw Dublin Castle (which is now a major Irish government complex but was previously used to house British government until 1922 and before that the Kingdom of Ireland plus a few other jobs over the years). The walls in the tower are around 5m thick. Not surprisingly these areas of the castle were used as prisons at one stage by the British government. When the British were in power, there were some fairly serious rules in place over the years, including but not limited to, Irish people not allowed to be educated, not allowed to purchase land and unable to vote.
From there we went around the corner and saw Dubhlinn (meaning dark pool and how Dublin got its name) Gardens (which was originally called the dark pool as this area used to be a dark pool of water that the Vikings used to set up Dublin as a trade post). Here we learnt about the Irish potato famine (which was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845-1852 (caused by a blight infestation in potatoes). This was such a big issue in Ireland at the time as the British economic policy meant that the only thing that the Irish could grow and keep (leasing land from the British), was potatoes. If they grew anything else it was to be exported and sold and they were not given the money from the sale. This lead to a mass exit of Irish people from Ireland as well as many deaths. This is one of the reasons that there are were so many Irish people in America. There were also cases of cannibalism at the time in Ireland due to people trying to survive.
The guide we had today was fantastic. He was very knowledgeable but also very casual and it just made learning all the information that much easier with his approach.
From our walking tour, we then headed to do a tour of the Guinness Storehouse. Here we got to see the history of how Guinness was and still is made including the science behind as well as the building of the company and what the company did for their employees early on. This includes setting up health plans and housing etc.
As part of the tour we were taught how to taste Guinness. The rule is to "never sip a Guinness." The reason that so many people say they don't like Guinness is because they are tasting it wrong. You are supposed to take a large mouthful and hold it in your mouth for a few seconds, swallow it and then breathe out through your nose. This allows you to get the full flavour of it across your tongue and get all the flavours involved. At the end of the tour we headed up to the gravity bar on 7th floor looked out across Dublin while drinking our beers.
We have managed to clock up a couple of kms over the last few days of walking which was nice after a couple of long flights.
But most importantly, turns out that Gordo had in fact not forgotten to pack the toothpaste, she just managed to hide it from herself in a secret compartment in her toiletries bag.
Anyway, until we meet again!
Super interesting about the rules for the Irish while the Brits were in change. I also had no idea bout the cannibalism!
ReplyDeleteYeah it got pretty hairy there for a bit!
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