Where the streets have no name
OK, I gotta admit I really like the Irish accent if not the Guinness so much. Nevertheless, the Guinness Storehouse is definitely a place worth visiting even for someone who has no interest in breweries, beer or Guinness (not me, Denise). Oh, yeah, we're in Dublin this weekend. Ireland, the land that inspired CS Lewis' Narnia books. Got a couple of cheap £4 flights across to fair Ireland on AerLingus. The taxes and charges were another £40 though so in the end not quite a bargain but there's nothing you can do about taxes.
The hotel that we stayed in, the Morrison, was the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in! Not from an outside granduer perspective but the quality of the individual room was one level above anything I've had before. They had an Ipod docking station, Apple computer for internet that doubled as a TV, nice paintings, towels tied with ribbons, modern bathroom and excellent furnishings! I was amazed. A lot of hotels are nice but have outdated furniture or showerheads but this one had everything and was the most technologically advanced one I've seen! I don't usually go to a city and rave about the hotel but it's part of the experience and this one was definitely something to experience! They even had dressing gowns that I had to wear, although I really had no need to do so ;-P You get what you pay for I guess and this one was £100 a night.
We had considered staying at the Clarence, which is owned by U2, that Bono guy and his band. Hence the song reference as the title of the blog ;) We didn't stay there as it was too expensive but we went and had scones and tea there on the Sunday. It was quiet but the service and food was good. I don't think the rooms would have been as modern as the Morrison.
The other reason for the blog title is that the maps were totally confusing for Dublin. We would be walking down, for example, Wellington Quay and expecting the next intersecting street to be Anglesea St but it turns out to be something totally different! So we weren't sure if the map was only showing the major streets and not all of them or what! So there were a few occasions of going one way, doubling back and finding that we were going the right way to begin with! It didn't prove to be a major nuisance but was confusing at the start.
The Oliver St. John Gogarty was the first place that we tried to find with the map. Probably took us twice as long to find it with that map! Gogarty's, as it is known, is a traditional Irish pub in the Temple Bar area of Dublin which is where all the nightlife and restaurants happen. We tried to get into the pub atmosphere but it was a bit of a disappointment really. There was not nearly as many places with live music as we had thought and it was all rather crowded - well I guess that's a sign that at least others were enjoying themselves. I'm sure that if you wanted a boozy night out the Temple Bar area would be the place to go and you'd have a lot of fun there.
After Gogarty's which was the recommendation from the concierge (on the expensive side but decent food) we walked to the Guinness Storehouse which wasn't too far away. We had an all day bus tickets bought at the airport and which got us into the city, but walking was fine and catching the bus might have taken longer if we missed the right stop. I was surprised to see that Dublin was a bit run down and generally on the dirty side. Compared to some of the cities in Europe I wouldn't really rate it for beauty. I guess the real beauty of Ireland is in the countryside which I'll have to do later if I find the time. The city however, needed a bit of a spruce up and there was generally random, high-schoolesque grifitti everwhere. The route to the Guinness place had a lot of buildings with broken windows and such. Granted it was an industrial area yet it's probably the most visited place in Dublin so you'd think they (the council) would try to make the roads that lead there pleasant if not appealing.
The Guinness Storehouse had about four floors of the building devoted to marketing exhibitions from the past and it just shows how much advertising played a part of its history. There is also the now legendary story of Arthur Guinness negotiating a 9,000 year lease at IR£45 per annum for the unused brewery. At the end we had a pint of Guinness (included in the ticket price - buy online beforehand) at the Gravity Bar. The highest bar in Dublin at seven floors up. Some pretty good views but it was getting dark outside and I couldn't finish my Guinness as I had had two smaller samples halfway through the tour. I'm not such a great fan of Guinness anyway.
We did the typical wander around the city checking out the notables. Went to Trinity College (1592) which was extremely nice and found out that the Book of Kells (a gospel manuscript from c. 800 AD) was housed in the college library!! The Book of Kells was mentioned in quite a number of tourist brochures but none actually said what it was! We were outside with a bunch of people waiting for it to open and this nice lady explained what it was and gave us a short history on it. She turned out to be a teacher of some sort leading a group of American university students but she was Irish herself. It costs about €10 to see the Book of Kells and includes an exhibition on the scribes art and history beforehand. The Book of Kells is opened to a different page of the four gospels each day but it didn't mean much to anyone as it was written in either Latin or some old Irish dialect that no one understands now but everybody seemed to be lingering around that exhibit case trying to draw out their €10's worth!
The library upstairs was quite a grand sight however. I was probably more impressed with the library and the old manuscripts that it held than I was with the Book of Kells itself. The library walls were probably over two stories high and the shelves and manuscripts went up the height of them! Very spectacular. Really had that old, mystical, historical knowledge feel to it. Along the centre were exhibits of a sample of old manuscripts and books including a copy of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress from 1710 and other books by Isaac Watts (the hymn writer). Quite pleased to see it! Ireland is very Catholic (88% according to the CIA) but Trinity College is Anglican (they have their own chapel on the grounds that was singing 'Be Thou My Vision' as I was walking past) and the figurehead Christ Church Cathedral is Anglican as well (Church of Ireland). Trinity College is one of only six copyright libaries in the UK which means it is entitled to receive, free of charge, and inclusive of postage and packing, a copy of every work published in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. I really wanted to take a photo of the library but that was not allowed. I didn't see how taking a photo without the flash could do any harm but there were too many security personnel around :)
I can't even remember the flight back now...bad memory. I was reading The Hobbit at the time and it was a short flight to get back to London.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=za0rna8.14dfg74s&x=0&y=-k7kq4b
(Click on 'View Photos without signing in')
The hotel that we stayed in, the Morrison, was the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in! Not from an outside granduer perspective but the quality of the individual room was one level above anything I've had before. They had an Ipod docking station, Apple computer for internet that doubled as a TV, nice paintings, towels tied with ribbons, modern bathroom and excellent furnishings! I was amazed. A lot of hotels are nice but have outdated furniture or showerheads but this one had everything and was the most technologically advanced one I've seen! I don't usually go to a city and rave about the hotel but it's part of the experience and this one was definitely something to experience! They even had dressing gowns that I had to wear, although I really had no need to do so ;-P You get what you pay for I guess and this one was £100 a night.
We had considered staying at the Clarence, which is owned by U2, that Bono guy and his band. Hence the song reference as the title of the blog ;) We didn't stay there as it was too expensive but we went and had scones and tea there on the Sunday. It was quiet but the service and food was good. I don't think the rooms would have been as modern as the Morrison.
The other reason for the blog title is that the maps were totally confusing for Dublin. We would be walking down, for example, Wellington Quay and expecting the next intersecting street to be Anglesea St but it turns out to be something totally different! So we weren't sure if the map was only showing the major streets and not all of them or what! So there were a few occasions of going one way, doubling back and finding that we were going the right way to begin with! It didn't prove to be a major nuisance but was confusing at the start.
The Oliver St. John Gogarty was the first place that we tried to find with the map. Probably took us twice as long to find it with that map! Gogarty's, as it is known, is a traditional Irish pub in the Temple Bar area of Dublin which is where all the nightlife and restaurants happen. We tried to get into the pub atmosphere but it was a bit of a disappointment really. There was not nearly as many places with live music as we had thought and it was all rather crowded - well I guess that's a sign that at least others were enjoying themselves. I'm sure that if you wanted a boozy night out the Temple Bar area would be the place to go and you'd have a lot of fun there.
After Gogarty's which was the recommendation from the concierge (on the expensive side but decent food) we walked to the Guinness Storehouse which wasn't too far away. We had an all day bus tickets bought at the airport and which got us into the city, but walking was fine and catching the bus might have taken longer if we missed the right stop. I was surprised to see that Dublin was a bit run down and generally on the dirty side. Compared to some of the cities in Europe I wouldn't really rate it for beauty. I guess the real beauty of Ireland is in the countryside which I'll have to do later if I find the time. The city however, needed a bit of a spruce up and there was generally random, high-schoolesque grifitti everwhere. The route to the Guinness place had a lot of buildings with broken windows and such. Granted it was an industrial area yet it's probably the most visited place in Dublin so you'd think they (the council) would try to make the roads that lead there pleasant if not appealing.
The Guinness Storehouse had about four floors of the building devoted to marketing exhibitions from the past and it just shows how much advertising played a part of its history. There is also the now legendary story of Arthur Guinness negotiating a 9,000 year lease at IR£45 per annum for the unused brewery. At the end we had a pint of Guinness (included in the ticket price - buy online beforehand) at the Gravity Bar. The highest bar in Dublin at seven floors up. Some pretty good views but it was getting dark outside and I couldn't finish my Guinness as I had had two smaller samples halfway through the tour. I'm not such a great fan of Guinness anyway.
We did the typical wander around the city checking out the notables. Went to Trinity College (1592) which was extremely nice and found out that the Book of Kells (a gospel manuscript from c. 800 AD) was housed in the college library!! The Book of Kells was mentioned in quite a number of tourist brochures but none actually said what it was! We were outside with a bunch of people waiting for it to open and this nice lady explained what it was and gave us a short history on it. She turned out to be a teacher of some sort leading a group of American university students but she was Irish herself. It costs about €10 to see the Book of Kells and includes an exhibition on the scribes art and history beforehand. The Book of Kells is opened to a different page of the four gospels each day but it didn't mean much to anyone as it was written in either Latin or some old Irish dialect that no one understands now but everybody seemed to be lingering around that exhibit case trying to draw out their €10's worth!
The library upstairs was quite a grand sight however. I was probably more impressed with the library and the old manuscripts that it held than I was with the Book of Kells itself. The library walls were probably over two stories high and the shelves and manuscripts went up the height of them! Very spectacular. Really had that old, mystical, historical knowledge feel to it. Along the centre were exhibits of a sample of old manuscripts and books including a copy of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress from 1710 and other books by Isaac Watts (the hymn writer). Quite pleased to see it! Ireland is very Catholic (88% according to the CIA) but Trinity College is Anglican (they have their own chapel on the grounds that was singing 'Be Thou My Vision' as I was walking past) and the figurehead Christ Church Cathedral is Anglican as well (Church of Ireland). Trinity College is one of only six copyright libaries in the UK which means it is entitled to receive, free of charge, and inclusive of postage and packing, a copy of every work published in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. I really wanted to take a photo of the library but that was not allowed. I didn't see how taking a photo without the flash could do any harm but there were too many security personnel around :)
I can't even remember the flight back now...bad memory. I was reading The Hobbit at the time and it was a short flight to get back to London.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=za0rna8.14dfg74s&x=0&y=-k7kq4b
(Click on 'View Photos without signing in')
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