UK and Dublin: Day 15: Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, River Cruise, Guinness tour, Dublin, Ireland August 4, 2024

 Once again, my husband K was up early. This time, he got up at 6:15 and went to the fitness room. My daughter J and I got up at 8:34. When we were ready for breakfast at 9:10, K was heading off to the ClarinetFest's last day.

I went with more of a Sunday vibe for breakfast with pastries, scone, and yogurt with fruit compote.

We went upstairs again at 9:40 to wash up and relax a bit. 

When we left at 11, there were some raindrops. J went back up to the room to get umbrellas. We then crossed the River Liffey on the Sean O'Casey Bridge. We saw these birds perched there.

 At 11:14, we were standing in front of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church. It was an old church they'd considered closing, but realized that it was a draw for tourists and sailors for Sunday Mass. So, it stays open.

 

Inside, the peeling paint showed how much work the church needed.

 

Mass was scheduled for 11:30, but started 2 minutes early. The cantor had the most beautiful voice and Irish accent. The priest's Irish accent was charming and he gave a good sermon. There was a family who were obviously parishioners and handled many of the duties.

Mass finished at 12:05 and I took a few minutes to finish my photos of the back of the church. The saints depicted in the stained glass of the choir loft were Kevin, Cecilia, William, Margaret of Scotland, and Columba. 

When we came out of church, what did we see on the other side of the river but a Guinness truck. It was foreshadowing, for sure.

We thought the CHQ building next door to the hotel might have something open for lunch. We were right. The Bakehouse was open when we arrived at 12:30, and we got a salad for €9.95, a chicken sandwich for €7.50, Coke Zero and a Fanta for €2.75 each, crisps for €1.50, and a brownie  and an almond & jam tart for €3.50 each.

 

When we finished lunch around 1:25, we went out the back of the building to the tram platform to buy three round trip tickets for €5.20 each. As we headed back to the hotel, it was spitting.

In the room at 1:35, we decided to check in for our flights tomorrow. I could not get it to work on the app. So, I had to use the iPad and do it online.

At 2, we headed out again, this time for a river cruise. Two days ago, we'd realized we'd have a lot of time to kill before our next reservation with K. We like cruising rivers, wherever we go. We found that a cruise departed regularly from right by the Sean O'Casey Bridge just across from the hotel. J's ticket was €19.50, but I saved €2.50 on my senior ticket.

At 2:03, we were in line for the 2:15 cruise. It was about 2:15, when they let us onboard. We chose seats on the right, a bit forward, as we'd been warned there was to be a tour group in the back that was to hear a translation.

 This Dublin Discovered tour was moving at about 2:20. It was hard to take pictures thanks to the water coming down from the roof over the windows. We sailed west first. 

Here you can see the kayaks that we'd seen on the river the other day. They are along Bachelors Walk.

As we sailed back eastward, we passed The Clarence Hotel on Wellington Quay. While it's a fine old building, what interested me was the building next door. It looks like it says "Dime Coffee Co. Dublin 1869". It is in great shape for its age.  I will admit, though, that Bono and The Edge used to own The Clarence.

The guide told us Dublin was founded in about 700 A.D. The River Liffey used to be six times wider. Dublin is a world financial center.  It is the largest tech hub outside of California. The Jeanie Johnston, whose replica is near our hotel, was a famine ship that made 16 trips to America. One was to my hometown of Baltimore. She never lost a person. Others were called "coffin ship" and lost 20-30% of their 300 passengers. The Samuel Beckett Bridge was actually built in Rotterdam and needs a Rotterdam man to open it 180° in 2 minutes. The docks near it sit on reclaimed land.

It is 80 miles to Liverpool from the harbor where Oceania's Nautica cruise ship sits.

The "gold" on the Central Bank of Ireland building is an optical illusion. 

The Convention Centre is built to represent the perfect Guinness pour angle.

Most importantly, we learned that Liffey in Gaelic is An Life. There seems to be some debate as to whether or not it means "river of life". Regardless, there are 21 bridges.

When we docked at 3, it was 68° and the rain stopped. We left a €1 tip and went to the hotel to wait for K.
 

We didn't have to wait terribly long. We all left at 3:40 and were at the tram stop George's Dock station six minutes later. We boarded at 3:55.

We got off at the Fatima tram station in St. James at 4:15. Not an exciting area of Dublin.

Moments later, we were in St. Catherine's, which not only looked better, but very excitingly is named for the Catholic church in the area. That church- and the Church of Ireland church with the same name nearby- is dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria, who is my patron saint, as well as J's. She's revered in Ireland. Who knew!! No wonder I feel an affinity for this country.

 After an 8-minute walk with no helpful signs, we finally saw our destination- Guinness Storehouse. Once again, J and I had planned a visit to a place that made a product that neither of us liked. But, this time, K did like the product. And J and I enjoy factory tours. When they were teenagers, I took her and her sister to a vineyard in the States, while K was at a ClarinetFest in the area. We like seeing how things are made.

 

At 4;25, we were in line. We had tickets for the 4:30 tour, which we'd booked back home. These tickets go fast. Anyway, at 4:30, we were in another line to continue to wait. Meanwhile, we had a view of an interesting wall.

 At 4:32. we were part of a group heading inside. A sign above us told us that the building was started in 1902 and fermentation began 4 years later and continued until 1988. Moments later, we were in the center of the building and I got this cool shot.

We came upon this great photo op wall and J and I took a selfie. Later, we took one with all three of us.

There were stairs on this tour, but we found elevators, which meant we were not with our original group, not that it mattered.

We moved into the educational portion of the tour, where we learned about the ingredients in Guinness.

Now, being a retired German teacher, I am familiar with the famous Reinheitsgebot. This list is very close to what was allowed under the original law. It differs in how one ingredient is described. Here they said "barley", but the Bavarian law said "malt". However, the malt in question was malted barley. But believe me, there is a huge difference between Guinness and even dark German beer, which I actually generally like. So, it has to me in the way the ingredients are treated.

Another sign talked about the barley and I strongly objected to it. Guinness is not deep ruby in color. It is dark brown.

They made a very big deal out of their water, which comes from the Wicklow Mountains. They stretch across the center of the country and even come into County Dublin. They had a nifty display of water making a curtain of water with the mountains projected behind it. Then, the water got truly amazing, making the shapes of harps, Guinness glasses, words telling you of the Wicklow Mountains and that Guinness is 95% water. Seriously cool. I know the first photo is a bit out of focus, but it was the best harp.

 

Hops were next and then we were by the cool wall again. This time, I could take a photo of their famous toucan mascot.

It was yeast's turn. Again, fascinating info.

Old machines and temperature info were interesting, too.

 

Barley and how it was treated was presented through a series of signs.

 

I love trivia and their stuff was amazing.

 

At one point, we passed a window and I could see trucks working even on Sunday.

There was a thorough discussion of the different sizes of casks. What we call a "barrel" is really just a size of cask, as are firkin, butt and kilderkin. Fun words! And, here's the thing -they made their own casks. Now, they use steel containers. They used their former coopers (cask makers) to repurpose the left over casks and wood into furniture until they ran out of those materials and the last coopers retired.

We then entered a small room with a group of people, where we were each served a small, perfectly poured Guinness in a miniature glass. As much as I wanted to keep it, I couldn't. But, here's a photo.

Next up was advertising. The info about their harp logo is too good to summarize. I love the part about the Irish government's use of a harp.

There were 3D depictions of mascots and ads. There were glass cases filled with thing with Guinness on them.

 

There was a small theater with comfy seats that showed a continuous string of Guinness ads, none of which we recognized, of course.

Meanwhile, out toward the center of the building was this lovely mobile of a harp..

We made our way up to the glass-enclosed bar on the roof. J and I got our version of a Coke, while K got a Guinness. These drinks were part of the tour. It was impossible to find somewhere to sit, but I did manage to take photos out of almost every window. 

The nice thing was that there were descriptions on most windows of what was off in that direction. Unfortunately, sometimes, it was tough to tell what they were referring to. The Wicklow Mountains, however, were pretty obvious.

 

The next photo is about the Liberties area of Dublin and refers to St. Patrick's Cathedral. Two things about St. Patrick's: 1. it is that green dome in the distance; 2. contrary to what you may think it is not Catholic, but rather Church of Ireland, which is related to the Church of England. Normally, I wouldn't really mention it, since it was once Catholic and it was taken from us. But, in this case, I care about the Liberties itself and that is because part of it is actually called "Maryland", which is the name of my home state. In the second photo, St. Patrick's is in the back right.

 

The photo discussing Trinity College is an example of my not having a clue what landmark to note.

St. Patrick's Tower is incredibly easy to pick out below due to its green dome. It has nothing to do with the cathedral. In fact, the tower is what remains of the largest smock windmill in Europe and it used to have a 4 foot tall statue of St. Patrick on top. The tower is also the last remaining part of the George Roe & Co. Distillery, which opened in 1757. In the 1880's, it was the largest distillery in Europe.

Of course, from up here, we had a view of some of the brewery buildings. The brewery covers 50 acres.

 We could also see the huge Phoenix Park in western Dublin.

 

I've seen churches in Germany that have the seashell to show they are on one of the paths of the Camino de Santiago. I was really surprised to find there is one here. It's the large church by the brewery. The other church, with the green spire, is no longer a church but rather the Pearse Lyons Distillery. It's an interesting use of a former church.

One more thing that we could see was really important to the brewery- the maltstore.

Of course, we got a great deal of pleasure in watching the creation of the "perfect pour" for each serving of Guinness. It's not done all it once. Rather, a partial pour is done and left to settle, which is fun to watch. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took several selfies with Dublin behind us before going down to the gift shop, which was really rather large, at about 6:39. They had a wide variety of items.

 

We left at 7, passing the factory gate and repurposed buildings on our way to the tram. There used to be a grand canal here, but it has been filled in. It was used for transporting Guinness, of course.

We were at St. James's tram stop in time for the 7:10. When we got on, we were surprised when 2 guys gave up their seats for J and me.

J had found a restaurant/pub on the north side of the river. We got off the tram at 7:25 very close to W. Plunket.

 

The place was really rather deep. We were taken to a table about mid-way back. It was not very light in there.

I got a Rockshore Cider for €6.90, J got Sprite, and K asked for water.

Since it was our last dinner in Ireland, we wanted it to be good. I ordered Bangers and Mash for €19.95, which I split with J. K wanted the Beef and Guinness Stew (Ł199.95) pretty much for himself. J ordered Plunket's Crispy Chicken Burger for €16.95.

We were totally intrigued by the name Mango and Passion Fruit Eton Mess and had to try it. We also got the safe-sounding Apple and Rhubarb Crumble. Both were €7.50. That thing on top of both of them seems to be a cape gooseberry. Both desserts were delicious.

 

Restrooms were, of course, downstairs. After all the walking and standing at Guinness, the knees weren't thrilled.

We were out of the restaurant at 8:45 and heading to the tram stop, when pain went searing down my left ankle and under the foot, rendering it unusable. K and J had to help me walk to the tram. Luckily, I was able to get a seat, when it arrived at 8:55. When we arrived at our stop behind EPIC, I could walk again.

When we got around to the front of EPIC at 9:06, we saw some beautiful colors in the sky over the river to the east.

We went upstairs and packed. That's always so much fun.

K and J were in bed, when an alarm started going off around 11:30. Had to call downstairs for help. It was decided that it was a CO₂ sensor  gone awry. We were told to open the windows and turn off the air. It did not make for a comfortable night.

The phone logged 9,742 steps for 3.1 miles and also 1 floor.