Old Jameson Distillery for breakfast, Guinness Brewery for lunch... Off to a great start today!

 

Well we bid farewell to Bootsie and Therese :( , but not before we went to two amazing places today…The  Jameson Distillery and the Guinness Brewery! Was it a little early to start drinking whisky at 10:30 in the morning? Maybe. Was it awesome? Heck yes.

Me and my "Golden Ticket" to whiskey tasting!

 I was one of the lucky few to do a whiskey tasting and got to compare Jameson, Jack Daniels, and Johnny Walker black label, I had to give the nod to Jameson. After that it was on to the Guinness Brewery and a drink or two (or three) in their spectacular Gravity bar. While it was cloudy out today, we still had a pretty good view of Dublin from the top of the brewery. It was really cool to see the birthplace of Guinness and to see the Arthur Guinness Lease in person! Guinness has the lease for the land that they are on for 9,000 years! Good to know there’s not going to be a shortage any time soon!

We made a stop yesterday at the Waterford factory and got to take a tour of the facilities, seeing how the crystal is made and meticulously crafted.

Waterford crystal in progress...

Waterford Viola!

The top and bottom piece were not held together yet... She was verrrryy careful!

While on the tour we saw the U.S. Open trophy being made, well, actually it was the second one. The first one broke and they had to redo it on short notice. They let a girl on the tour hold it and she and the craftsman who was working on it, looked rather worried about the prospect of her dropping it. It’s an amazing factory filled with skilled artists who have devoted their lives to making the coolest and most striking crystal I’ve ever seen. 

It doesn’t feel like we’ve been in Ireland for the past week, it’s been a blur so far! I can’t believe we’re heading to a different country in two days!!! This trip feels so different from the American counterpart, having everything be condensed into about a week at each place, and being on such a strict schedule!

Out of the certifications I have, this might be my favorite! I'm an official Whiskey Taster now!

The original Arthur Guinness lease, giving them 9000 years on the property!