Off to the guiness factory today and in the RAIN!! It was a number 123 bus but they pronounce it one, two tree, so funny! Off we hopped and into the factory- it is shaped like a Guiness glass. The first brewer of 'porter' as it was known was of course Alfed guiness, who passed the trade to his son, the first yeast that was used by him a strain has actually been kept and is guarded in the company safe, just so it tastes the same as it did 200 years ago. The process has not changed , the water is from County Wicklow and the barley is from Ireland in fact 2/3 of Irsh barley goes to Guiness , who have special purchasers who regularly check on the growth of the crop. Guiness goes to over 150 countries now and we saw the three Guiness ships and how they used to use barrells that were made of wood by a 'coopr' in the barrel factory. Over 250,000 barrells were made by 300 coopers for Guiness and they used to be stacked high on the Dublin skyline.rnBeing a cooper was a very pestigious job , they trained for 7 years and when they had finished their apprenticeship, the young lad was placed in one of his own barrells and rolled around the Guiness yard until he had had enough or threw up!rnWe left a message on the worl message board and then went to the Skyline bar, a fantastic bar on floor 7 of the factory with an amazing view of dublin and the mountains in the distance. I had my free Guiness pint- the kids had a sip each and they had a coke. Off back on the 123 to Trinity Coleege and the book of Kells. This is one of the oldest survivng books of the 21 Centuary, absolutely facinating. A bit like seeing a Bible from early times. alll illustrated by monks and beautifully written. from the book of Kells we went off up to an amazing Library called the long room, again really old and filled with 200 year old books.rnEnded our day in Hrd rock Cafe in dublin- hugely expensive a burger was 25.00 USD stupid money needless to say we shared a giant combo appetizer.rnFlew back on the early flight to Uk and were collected in SUN by Nan.