Dublin Literary Pub Crawl

When we finished our pints in the Gravity Bar we headed out the Temple Bar area of Dublin for a literary pub crawl. I was nervous about this tour; the description sounded a little cheesy, and I’ve been on enough cheesy tours. Luckily for me, it wasn’t.

Dublin Literary Pub Crawl
Dublin, Ireland

There were 2 men conducting the tour, and periodically they would act out little vignettes of Irish authors and their works. These I found quite funny, but I’m not sure everyone on the tour got all the jokes—only a few of us were laughing. I particularly enjoyed their interpretation of some of Oscar Wilde’s personal correspondence. Our guides also sang during the tour, and that was a lovely taste of Irish musical culture.

We toured 4 pubs that night, just a fraction of the over 800 pubs in Dublin. Since the tour cannot possibly cover this many, there is an accompanying book that gives the history of more famous pubs in Dublin, as well as background information on Irish authors and poets. We bought the book and had it signed by the author, one of the stars of the tour that night.

The tour concluded with a little trivia quiz about Dublin and her authors—there was even a prize! It was a close race, but in the end, only one person could win: me! I won a free Pub Crawl t-shirt! WOO!! I had a lot of fun on this tour (even before I won the t-shirt) and I would definitely take it again.

Useful Links!

Pictures from Our Trip!

Dublin Literary Pub Crawl

Temple Bar

My Goodness, My Guinness

The Guinness Storehouses
Dublin, Ireland

Our first stop in Dublin was the Guinness Storehouse. The center is located in a 7-storey building though which you guide yourself. Each entry ticket comes with a pint voucher. There are several places to redeem the voucher, but the best place is probably the Gravity Bar on the 7th floor; it provides unimpeded vistas of Dublin. The visitor center might be the tallest building in Dublin.

Gravity Bar Views
Dublin, Ireland

This visit was fun and informative, but I thought it was a bit expensive. I also would have liked to see the brewery process in action. The exhibits featured museum-worthy pieces of machinery and videos of the historic brewing process. Still, we had a good time and it’s a fun place to spend an afternoon.
There are 3 cafes at the storehouse, and their menus all feature dishes that are made with Guinness—a tasty theme. Even more interesting . . . there are recipes for some of these delicious dishes on their website.

Useful Links!

Pictures from Our Trip!

Guinness Storehouse

Guinness RecipesWebcam Views from Gravity Bar

The Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher
County Clare, Ireland

We stopped for lunch at the Roadside Tavern brewpub before we arrived at the Cliffs of Moher. There aren’t many microbreweries in Ireland—Guinness has a pretty dominant market share—but we sought them out. When we walked in, we were immediately brought into conversation with a couple of regulars. Ireland has the friendliest people of any country we’ve visited; the Irish are always happy to shoot the breeze over a pint. On our way out of the bar we noticed a Great Lakes Brewing sticker; I was not the first Ohioan to visit this pub.

Don't climb over the wall and fall off the cliffs to your death
Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland

Sated, we drove to the Cliffs of Moher. It was like being on the edge of the world; the cliffs rise above the sea some 700 feet, with thousands of miles of ocean on the horizon. The visuals are so dramatic they’ve been featured in several films, including The Princess Bride (the Cliffs of Insanity) and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (Voldemort’s Horcrux Cave).

There are tour options that include boat trips around the cliffs and to the nearby Aran Islands. However, there was an epic storm blowing in with hurricane strength winds, so we decided to stay safely on land, and out of the rough seas.

Useful Links!

Pictures from Our Trip!

Roadside Tavern Brewpub

Cliffs of Moher

Movies featuring the Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher Cruises

Great Lakes Brewing

A Weekend on the Emerald Isle

Tullamore DEW Old Bonded Warehouse
Tullamore, Irealnd

On our first day in Ireland we drove across the entire country, coast to coast, and it only took 3 hours—Ireland’s not that wide.  We were driving from Dublin to the Cliffs of Moher. Along the way we stopped off in Tullamore to visit the Tullamore DEW whisky distillery. While in Scotland, I discovered that I liked Scotch, so I was eager to try some Irish whisky. Not particularly liking scotch, Joe was not as eager. There are many distilleries around Ireland. We chose Tullamore because it was on our route from Dublin to County Clare, it was cheaper than the Jameson tour in Dublin, and we’d heard of it.




Placemat for Tasting 3 Whisky Blends
Tullamore, Ireland

The Tullamore Dew visitor center opens at 9:30am and we arrived slightly before 10:00am. We inquired about tour times, but the text tour wasn’t until 10:20am. Since we didn’t have the time to wait around 30 minutes for an hour long tour to start we bought a tasting ticket instead for only €5.00. Before our tasting started we watched a little video about the history of the whisky, and then were walked through the museum on a personal mini-tour. Next, we tasted 3 blends of whiskies that were vastly different from scotch. They were also generous pours, Joe—the driver—didn’t finish his. Don’t worry though, no whisky was wasted on this tour; I finished his too.

The tour ended in the gift shop where all kinds of Tullamore DEW merchandise and whisky was available for purchase. There are 2 blends of their whisky that is only available in their visitor center. We wanted to buy a bottle, but I was hesitant to spend the requisite amount on whisky we hadn’t even tasted. Luckily, they had just opened a bottle at the bar, so I was able to taste it there with some of the bar maids. The 3 of us pronounced it delicious—Joe would just have to believe us—and we bought the bottle.

Useful Links!
Pictures from Our Trip!
Visit the Tullamore Dew Old Bonded Warehouse
Tullamore DEW Whiskies

This Duck Quacks Me Up!

Why, yes, that is a giant rubber duck
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

In September, I returned to the US for a wedding. A week after the wedding, the giant rubber duck came to Pittsburgh! A city on the east coast—finally I would be able to see it! The giant duck is an art installation by the Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman; it has been all over the world, with each city building its own duck. I talked my parents into visiting the duck with me, and since my Grandma lives near Pittsburgh, we brought her along too.

Grandma and the Duck

My grandma is 91, and I was pretty sure she’d never seen anything like the duck in her whole life, so I didn’t tell her the whole truth about our plans. I told her that my parents and I would come down for lunch, and then we’d all visit this art exhibit in Pittsburgh. Honestly, I think she was more excited about the lunch than the art. I promised her she’d like the art, and she agreed to go.

My dad was not feeling it. He’d just come back from a weeklong conference and was not looking forward to driving 3 hours “just to see a duck”. He came along anyway, but I don’t think he expected to enjoy himself. When we reached Pittsburgh (please note it took only 2 hours, not 3), the duck was visible from the highway, and we were stuck in traffic. Luckily, we were able to divert my Grandma’s attention with the Steelers’ and Pirates’ stadiums. We got a little turned around trying to the find the entrance to the park, so our first view of the duck was from across the river. It was humorous, but it wasn’t the full effect, so I convinced my reluctant Dad we needed to get closer.



So ridiculous!
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Back on the proper side of the river, we parked the car and walked to Point State Park. The duck was anchored in such a place that you couldn’t see it until you were nearly right up next to it. Here was the true amazement; my dad took one look at it and gave his genuine belly laugh. Grandma was also amused. She laughed at the duck, and the babies, and duck, and the babies. I think the duck and the babies were tied for her attention.

Useful Links!
Duck Pictures!
Fllorentijn Hofman's Duck Page
Rubber Duck Wikipedia Page

Champagne Champs

Hand Hewn Limestone Caves
Taittinger House, Reims, France

Before we moved to Europe I was unaware that wine and cheese usually earned their names from the region in which they were produced. Now I know better, and I try to incorporate these localities into our trips. In Reims, there was champagne, so named for the region in which the grapes are grown. There are several champagne houses in the area, and they use underground caves for storing their bottles.

We visited Taittinger house on the outskirts of the city; there was free parking available on site. We walked into the tours office and were able to join a tour that started in 10 minutes time. To be clear, the champagne is not pressed and bottled here; it is aged. The Taittinger champagnes are aged for at 3 years in the underground caves.  The Romans used the site as a quarry, and dug these caves into the limestone in the 4th century. After the Romans, the site was occupied by an order of Benedictine monks who built an abbey over the caves, which they used for storage and rituals. The abbey was destroyed during the French Revolution, but the caves remained beneath the surface. In the 1920s, a champagne house was founded on the premises and in the 1930s, the Taittinger family bought the site.

One of the Vaults filled with Bottles
Taittinger House, Reims, France

The caves are ideal for champagne storage because of their constant temperatures and humidity levels. The average temperature is in the 50s, and we spent at least 30 minutes underground; if you go, bring a coat. There were millions of bottles in the caves, each in various stages of the ageing process. The bottles are stacked in every cubby and vault the Romans or the monks, or the Taittinger employees excavated. They are just laid on top of one another—no shelves. Until we visited these caves, it seemed impossible that all the champagne in the world could come from this small region, but it does; Taittinger is just 1 of many houses in the region.

Champagne at the end of the Tour
Taittinger House, Reims, France

The tour ended with a glass of champagne back at ground level. After so long underground, the bubbly helped take the chill off. The kind we tried was the “base model” Brut, but there were many more “upgraded” vintages available in the gift shop. We bought some bottles of these other varieties, so hopefully they’re as good as the Brut we sampled.


Useful Links!
Pictures from Our Trip!
Information about Taittinger
Taittinger Homepage (Learn about Tours, the Vintages, and the History)
10 Fun Facts about Taittinger
Taittinger Champagnes

Reims

Reims Cathedral During the Light Show
Reims, France

In college, I took a medieval art/architecture history class, and the professor always encouraged us to visit the places we were studying in class. To the best of my ability, I’ve followed his advice; the Vatican, Cologne cathedral, Notre Dame in Paris, Il Duomo in Florence, Mont St Michel. Reims cathedral was also on the list. I know we won’t see everything on the list, but it’s always fun when words and images become real places.

Architecturally speaking, Reims cathedral isn’t too different from Notre Dame, but the city was a perfect stopping point for the night, and several champagne houses are based there. Furthermore, the cathedral was having an evening light show while we were in town. The show was originally conducted for the 800th anniversary in 2011, but there was an encore presentation this summer.

The show was after sunset, so we walked to the plaza in front of the western façade and waited in the darkness with the gathering crowd; the show used the cathedral as a movie screen, projecting images onto the façade. It started suddenly. The spot lights went dark. Silence fell. Then light returned—with music—illustrating the construction of the building. Step by step, from the architectural plans to the masonry work, the cathedral rose into the sky. The show’s finale was a sequence of rapid color changes that would rival an LSD trip. And then it was done. The crowd dispersed into the night.



The rear of Reims Cathedral
Reims, France

Useful Links!
Pictures from Our Trip!
Video of the Light Show (it's a little long, but really cool if you can hang in there, check out 05:25)
Practical Information for visiting Reims Cathedral
Learn about the Cathedral's History, Windows, and Architecture