Dublin

In August, most Spaniards go on vacation.  Madrid empties out, stores close for vacation, and the city feels like a ghost town.  Most of Brian's coworkers left for 3-5 weeks, to go off to the beach or exotic locations around the world for their summer holiday.

Brian had always thought it would be great to get to Ireland, so I worked on planning this trip for a couple months.  We went the first week of August, and loved it!

Typically, the trips we take entail lots of sightseeing, lots of doing, lots of activity.  We decided to slow way down on this trip, and though we saw a lot of stuff in Dublin, we really took it easy for the rest of the trip. 

Brian on a bridge in Dublin, practicing his no smile pose.  I take a lot of pictures on these sorts of trips, so he'll be experimenting with lots of interesting faces, as you'll see in subsequent posts...

We really love farmers markets - there is something about supporting these food artisans that we really enjoy, and often the food tastes better and you can really see the craft and love behind the food.  We found a Saturday morning market in the Temple Square area of Dublin, and made that the first stop of the morning, perusing the booths for delicious foods and tasty treats.

After the market, we went to see the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the Bible from the 9th century.  It was housed in a building on the Trinity University campus, and was pretty cool... the skill and ability of the scribes was amazing, and the fact that the book had survived so long was incredible.

Then, off to the Jameson Distillery!  Brian's dad really loves Jameson, and I've been gaining an appreciation for whiskey.  The tour was in the old distillery, which had been well restored, and the tour was pretty cool.  I had learned from a guidebook that it was important to volunteer at the beginning of the tour if they asked for volunteers, read on if you would like to hear what I got to do!

The main entry hall with old wood trusses and sweet chandeliers in the corner above the bar.

Rich & Kenny, though I'm sure you'd like us to get you this as a gift, you'll just have to keep dreaming about it :)

So, this is what I volunteered for - becoming a certified whiskey taster!  At the end of the tour, you're given your choice of a drink with whiskey - either straight or a mixer, which you can see in the right of the photo.  There were about 7 out of the 30 of us that acted as tasters - I tried the triple distilled Jameson, double distilled scotch whiskey (I can't remember the brand), and then single distilled american whiskey (Jack Daniels).  In my expertise of whiskey drinking, I'd have to say that Jameson was definitely the best one of the three.  It was fun to try them all together!

I sat next to a Ukrainian whiskey connoisseur who talked to Brian and I a little bit afterwords about other places to visit and whiskeys to try.  

What is happening in this photo??  Tune back in tomorrow to find out...

(hint - I didn't buy anything, but this guy and I seem to be rather excited)

(and, this is really only a ploy to break up the post in 2 sections, because as one big post of Dublin, it was really long and I was worried no one would want to read the whole thing :) - though most of it is all pictures anyway!)