Well, I am still loving Dublin.

Today I took the hop-on hop-off bus once all the way around the city and listened to all the local history as well as the sense of humour of the guide. It was great fun and I think I actually learned a bit as well.

The second time around I got off at the Guiness Storehouse, which is where the homage to Guiness and its processing is now located. It was great! Call it the luck of the Irish, but I managed to get in for free, and then when I fessed-up to the staff they thought it was really funny as apparently today was the first day that they were using some new entrance mechanism and I was evidently a guinea pig who had figured out how to break through their defences. As such, they decided I deserved a free pint and souvenir! Not bad...

The tour was really good. You got to actually touch and taste the barley and the roasted barley, which tastes like a cross between coffee and popcorn and which goes towards giving Guiness its disitinctive flavour. This was my kind of tour! There was also a whole section devoted to responsible consumption of alcohol. I assume this was some sort of requirement, but even so it was interesting.

I had my pint at the very top of the storehouse, which has an excellent view of the whole of Dublin. I took photos in the event that I one day find an avenue for uploading them...

Met up with some folk from Oregon there, who included me in lunch at a pub on the river and then the tour of the Jameson Distillery, which had not been on my to do list but which was great (especially the hot toddies at the front end - yes, Dublin is still cold). Slightly tipsy as I write this, so please excuse any typos! Have to say, I hadn't given whisky much thought before going there, but really, it isn't so bad. And again, there were intersting bits and picecs to learn along the way.

Now it is 6.45 and I am considering an early night in view of having to get up at 6am tomorrow for my trip to Cork. We'll see what transpires.