Hey! We’re in Ireland!
After a very late flight (thank you, melatonin, for putting me to sleep before take off), we landed in Dublin on Friday morning. After what seemed like forever for bags to come out (ahem - for our gate-checked bag to come out because we had our checked bag right away), we caught the bus into the city and were able to check into our hotel early. After dropping bags, we headed for the old city centre. We cut through St. Stephen’s Green and up Grafton Street before getting to Temple Bar, where we had our first Irish fish and chips. Verdict - fish was good, chips were a disappointment. But that’s fine. We have plenty of time! After lunch, it was time for some books.
We walked the short walk over to Dublin Castle, taking in the Upper Yard before heading into Dubhlinn Gardens to get to Chester Beatty Library. Chester Beatty was an absolute dream - we saw the earliest known writings of Christ, so many beautiful religious texts and the most incredible overview of book binding. Book lover’s heaven!!
After taking in all our fill, it was time for the booze portion of our books and booze day - Teeling Distillery! Once upon a time, there were 37 distilleries in Dublin. Then, between US prohibition and the fight for independence, which made export to the UK difficult, the distilleries were put out of business. But they’ve started to come back - and Teeling is leading the way. It was the first new distillery to open in Dublin in 125 years and the first to be operating again after nearly 40 years after the last distillery shut down in the 70s. We had a great tour of the distillery, meeting the three stills, (Natalie, Rebecca and Alison) before sampling 3 of Teeling’s whiskeys. Two of them were perfectly fine but forgettable, if we’re being honest - the single malt and the small batch. And look, when I say forgettable, I don’t mean bad in any way. They were good whiskeys. But they were pretty similar to a lot of whiskeys. But the third… It’s their single grain and made similar to a bourbon but uses casks from a Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon. And that was a memorable whiskey. I’m not sure I’ve had anything like it. It was quite good and we confirmed we can get it at the airport so that we don’t have to lug a bottle around for the next couple of days.
After three whiskeys, I was ready for some ice cream. Okay. I’m always ready for some ice cream. But we weren’t quite ready for dinner and I had two ice cream places on my list for Dublin so we headed towards Murphys ice cream, where I had a delicious Chocolate Whiskey ice cream and an amazing Dingle Sea Salt. YUM! But then, it was time to find some dinner and we landed at Bruxelles, where EDP had a really amazing looking burger and chips that made up for lunchtime while I had goat cheese croquettes. Yeah, I know we’re in Ireland but EDP has told me I can’t have fish and chips at every meal in case of lead poisoning and I LOVE A CROQUETTE. I also had a whiskey cocktail. It was a damn good meal. From there, it was back to the hotel to try to stay up past 8pm, which went fine after I had a 45 minute nap. Oops.
We woke up SO LATE yesterday that we missed our opportunity for breakfast since we had a food tour booked for 10. We met our guide, Lorna, from Fab Food Tours at Mansion House just on the other side of the green and she took our group of 13 on a delicious tour of Dublin. We started with coffee and cannoli at Dolce Sicily - where we learned a lot about Ireland’s food history and that coffee is only really starting to take hold here. Then, it was across the road for some yummy cheeses from Sheridans. After the lowdown on some shopping, we ducked into The Pepper Pot for smoked salmon on soda bread and scones with raspberry jam and Irish cream (the scone may have been my favourite…) We moved on to Blazing Salads for samosas and Fallon & Byrne for chicken liver pate on crackers, cheese, and olives and then to the other ice cream shop I wanted to try, Three Twenty, where we had an amazing salted caramel brownie ice cream that was SO DELICIOUS. Finally we ended with some whiskey at the Swan pub, which is where the rebels did much of their planning for the uprising against the UK and where we learned women couldn’t be seen with a drink in public for a long time! It was such a good food tour that left us happily satiated.
Once our tour wrapped, it was time to head up to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, which was… Well, not quite a disappointment but it was crowded and hard to read the exhibition info. The book was beautiful but I don’t think the page we saw really exhibited the beauty it is known for. The pages are turned about every 8 weeks so we’ll have to go again if we ever make it back to Dublin. Now, the Long Room was a delight. We got to see it at a very unique time - some of the shelves are still full of books but the room is not ideal for book storage. So they are decanting all the books - each one gets cleaned and then sent to climate-controlled storage. They are about 2/3 of the way through. I don’t know if the intention is to leave empty shelves when they are done but it was quite something to see some shelves still packed with books while others sat with nothing.
Then, it was time for a drink at a cozy little cocktail bar where my cocktail came with toasted marshmallows. It was lovely to sit with a drink and my book and while away an hour. Now while we absolutely could have sat with another round or two of cocktails, we figured we should head to Merrion Square Park while the sun was out since there was rain in the forecast for today. We found the Oscar Wilde statue before wandering down one side and up the middle of the park. Then, it was towards the hotel, traipsing through St. Stephen’s Green again, this time along another set of paths, which led us past James Joyce’s bust. We ended our day with fish and chips from a spot recommended by Lorna and not too far from our hotel. It was excellent. The fish was so flakey. The chips were good & fat. I wasn’t a huge fan of their special tartar sauce but damn, it hit the fish and chips spot! Sadly our quest for hot chocolate after dinner ended in disappointment (every coffee shop closes at 5…) so we settled in for the night instead.
We were expecting rain for our last day in Dublin today - we’re actually expecting rain pretty much every day we’re here - so it was the perfect day for the museums. Sundays are also a tough day for restaurant selection so we had limited breakfast options but landed at a place that was recommended by a couple of locals that were on our food tour. When I saw porridge with peanut butter and chocolate on the menu, I didn’t need to read any further. It was a combo I’d have never thought of but was really just a scoop of peanut butter with some chocolate melts. Surprisingly tasty and something I’m definitely trying next time I make oatmeal. Then, since I messed up the opening time for the National Gallery, we grabbed a tea/hot chocolate until the Gallery opened. The rain mostly held off while we were making our way around outdoors but I suspect it may have been raining while we were in the Gallery.
The Gallery was lovely and much larger than I expected. We saw a lot of beautiful Irish art and I learned about Yeats’ painter brother. The portrait gallery was another highlight with both photographs and paintings of a lot of key Irish figures. We wandered throughout the rooms for a couple of hours, enjoying the extensive collection. Then, it was over to the Archeology building my of the National Museum, where we saw an incredible amount of archeological history of the country going back to the Palaeolithic era. The amount of gold that has been found around Ireland is quite something. The museum certainly packed a lot into its relatively small space.
Then, it was out into the day that while chilly, was much sunnier than expected. Instead of lunch, we stopped for hot chocolate with some chocolates as a snack before winding our way back through St. Stephen’s Green one last time. We’re heading for dinner shortly and then packing up for an early start tomorrow to pick up a car and start our drive around the northern and western coasts. There’s still a lot of rain in the forecast but we’ve got our waterproof jackets and the hiking boots so I’m sure we’ll be fine! And if we end up cold and wet… Well, that’s why there’s whiskey.
