Homeland Adventures Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of my Irish Chronicles!

Todays' post will cover the Guinness Brewery Tour, the Book of Kells, and the Church service I attended. Again, fairly wordy, so get that bottle of wine you didn't finish last time and enjoy!

Activity #4: Guinness Storehouse and Brewery Tour

This was without a doubt the highlight of my trip to Dublin. It is Ireland's most popular tourist attraction pulling in nearly a million visitors a year! It was super busy when I went on a Friday. You were first given a brief introduction into the brand and its founder before being left to tour the facility at your own pace. The building where the 'tour' is held is not actually a part of the working brewery, but rather used to be before the brewery expanded. From memory it was the original brewery building at one stage. The Storehouse was a victim of the expansion and after many years sitting derelict, was reopened in 2001 as a space dedicated to meeting the needs of the brewery's many and increasing visitors.

Central Light Well

I thought the whole space was well laid out and you could see a lot of effort had gone into it. It was spread over 6 floors, with floor 6 being the Gravity bar where, at the end of your wanderings, you could relax with a complementary Guinness and enjoy the near 360 degree views of Dublin.

The central light well was in the shape of a huge pint glass and it holds the Guinness World Record for being the largest. Its capacity is equivalent to over 14 million pints of Guinness.

The tour covered the brewing process, the history of the brand, the history of St. James' Gate brewing facility, all the advertising over the years, the merchandise, the changing bottle designs, the varieties of Guinness you can buy (there are several but not all varieties are available in every country) and so on. There was an on-site cafe/restaurant which was quite good value for money and very tasty, especially when you consider that often such places either inflate their prices or serve horrific food.

As I mentioned above, you could enjoy your complimentary Guinness at the Gravity Bar, but if you were really keen you could actually learn how to pour your own at a bar lower down. Pouring a Guinness from the tap takes just on 2 minutes before it is ready to serve and the process involves six steps. Simply put, you have to pour so much into the glass, wait for the 'surge' of bubbles to settle and then top it up. This way you get a really good head on it, that lasts to the final mouthful.

Apparently when you drink a Guinness you should get a touch of sweetness at the start, followed by a lovely roasted flavour followed by a long, bitter finish.

I certainly noticed those characteristics in mine :-)

Activity #5: The Book of Kells

No trip to Dublin would be complete without a trip to one of the most famous Universities in the world and the even more famous book it is home to: Trinity College and the Book of Kells.

The Book of Kells is a latin text of the Four Gospels and was written by Irish monks about 1000 years ago. It is famous for being one of the most beautifully illuminated Scriptures ever made. Illumination was an absolute art form: Entire pages are covered in the most beautiful images of holy people and holy symbolism. The first letter on most pages was a work of art in itself. Unfortunately due to the fragile nature of the book I was unable to take photos but I did pull a picture off the internet.

Trinity College itself was quite beautiful, it is right in the heart of Dublin and is a nice oasis away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Fun Fact: Jonathan Swift was Dean of Trinity College during the 1750s.

The other thing that Trinity College is famous for is The Long Room. This is home to some 200,000 of the oldest books in the Trinity College library, some of which date back to the early 1700s.

Activity #6: Church Service

I figured that seeing as I was in one of the most Catholic countries in the world (around 90% of the Irish are Catholic) that I may as well go to a church service.

I went to one called St. Patrick's Cathedral as I figured that sounded pretty Catholic only to subsequently realise that it was actually Anglican. Oh well.

I stayed anyway and it was really nice. It was a choral matins and the service took an hour but didn't really feel like it. The Church was really beautiful and it would have cost me five euros to visit it at any other time.

St. Patrick's Cathedral interior

On that note I shall conclude today's post. Next time will be about the random little extras that I partook in while I was there.