Last Day In Dublin

Saturday morning and this is our last full day in Dublin. How sad that our vacation has come to a fast end. I did look forward to going home.

Today is our bus tour of the city. We had a different tour guide this morning and it turned out to be Bernard's son James. He was just as informative as his father was with all the history. It was hard to take photos of the buildings and statues from the bus, they were either too big or we went by them too fast. Part of the time I was on the wrong side.

We did make stops at St. Patrick's Catherdral. Just got some photos outside we didn't get a chance to go inside. We also drove by Christ Church Catherdral. This is one of the oldest cathedrals in Ireland, no stopping here. If we wanted we can walk to these cathedrals later. Looking on the city map I had, these were a very far walk from our hotel.

Our tour took us to see the famous historical sites and we also went to Phoenix Park. We were able to get out to see the Papal Cross. This was the spot back in 1979 where Pope John Paul II had a mass service. This is also the place where our tour guide Bernard was found on his motorcycle. In fact everyone was taking pictures of Bernie on his motorcycly more than they were of the Papal Cross.

Our last tour this morning was at the Jameson Whiskey Distillery. This distillery was established in the 1780's. It was very interesting to find out how it is all made and the aging process to make this delicious whiskey. Before the tour started, we were seated into a small theater to watch a short video about Jameson's. Our tour guide told us that she needed eight volunteers for whiskey tasting. She needed 4 men and 4 women and the only other criteria was that you had to be over 18. I raised my hand up. Sure enough I was one of the lucky ones chosen.

We walked through the distillery and took a bunch of photos. At the end of the tour everyone was given a free shot of Jameson's whiskey. You had your choice of it straight or mixed. I had to sit at my table for the tasting. Mom and Jen picked out their drinks. I handed my camera over to Mom so that she could take photos. Proof that I was drinking whiskey.

I have to go back a bit here. Gary likes to drink Jack Daniels whiskey, which I don't particularly like, unless it's mixed with coke. My favorite whiskey is Crown Royal. Before this trip, Gary said all he wanted was for us to being back a bottle of Irish Whiskey and I told him that I will bring him home the good kind.

Now to the tasting. We all had a shot of the Jameson whiskey, Johnny Walker the Scotch whiskey and Jack Daniel's the American whiskey. Jameson's is distilled three times, Johnny Walker distilled twice and the Jack's distilled once. First we had to taste the Jameson's. Then we had to compare the Jameson's to the Jack's. Finally we compared the Jameson's to the Johnny Walker. Once we were done, our test at the end was to put out the glass that we liked the best, keeping in mind where we are. I really did like the Jameson's the best. It is real smooth, my second was the Jack's. I did not like the Johnny Walker at all. That is pretty strong. There was one guy who did like the scotch and another guy liked the Jack's. The rest of us picked the Jameson's. Once we finished with the tasting, we all got our complimentary shot of Jameson's. This time I mixed it with cranberry juice. Jen had hers with cranberry juice and she really liked it. I've never had whiskey with cranberry juice and I do have to admit that it is very nice.

All of us whiskey tasters got an official certificate stating that we are now Official Irish Whiskey Tasters. We were told that we can now put this prestigious award on our resumes. We finished our drinks and then went down to the store. I did buy Gary a bottle of the Jameson's whiskey and I also bought a small bag of the fudge made with Jameson's. Mom was talking to a worker while she was waiting for me and Jen. We found out that our tour guide was from Roundup Montana. What a small world. We knew that she was an American just by her talking, but we never did ask where she was from. First he asked where we were from, when we said Montana, that is when he told us she was from Roundup. He couldn't believe that we lived in a town so close. We never did see her again to talk to her. He did say that he would tell her we were from Montana.

I was feeling quite good by the time we left. Keep in mind that I drank four shots of whiskey in the morning. Not an usual occurance for me. I'm lucky to even drink one shot of whiskey. Once we finished our tour of Jameson's, back on the bus we went. We were then dropped off at Trinity College to wander around. We had a choice to get back on the bus at a certain time or we could just walk back to the hotel. Had to keep in mind that we had our farewell dinner for the night.

We decided to walk the streets to the little shops to get in some last souvenir buying. I still didn't buy anything for me. We walked alot going into the little shops, comparing prices. I bought me a linen scarf made in Ireland and also a necklace with a four leaf clover in it. More postcards. We didn't make it in time for the bus, which we figured we wouldn't anyway, so we walked back to the hotel.

I think I walked my Mom too much. Her legs were sure tired when we got done. Due to the weather she wasn't able to get out and get some walking in before our trip. In the last two days of our trip, we did some heavy duty walking.

We got ready for our farewell dinner. We were taken to a local pub called Nancy Hands. We had reserved seating on the second floor. We wanted to sit in the seats that looked like thrones. At our table was the group from Pennsylvania. We made good friends with this group as we sat with them quite a bit. One was Mom's seat partner on the bus the whole trip. They were a group of siblings, two sister and one brother and the two sisters brought their husbands. In fact they were sitting behind us on the flight from Atlanta to Dublin. We had a very delicious meal of Guiness stew. It was very tasty and made with Irish beef. For dessert we had baileys cheesecake. This was more a mousse than a cheesecake, but it was good.

I gave Mom my camera and had her take photos of all the tables. This was my last chance to get a photo of everyone. A few days back Mom's batteries on her digital camera died on her, so she fell back to her old and reliable film camera. She ended up taking 10 rolls of film on top of all her digital.

Once we made it back to our hotel, we all went to the bar and had one last drink together. Well not everyone went. We had drinks with the two gals from Texas, they were sure funny, the couple from British Columbia who missed the first three days due to plane troubles. The family from New Jersey and a woman from Austrailia. This was the first place where Jen was carded. She had ordered the pear cider. She wasn't the only one carded. The young couple from New Jersey were also carded. We just laughed. The woman from Austrailia told the bartender not to worry, Jen was younger than she looked. Then she realized that she said that wrong.

Once we all finished our drinks, back to the rooms we went. We had an early morning to catch our bus to the airport at 6:45 am. We also had to repack our suitcases. I had to pack the bottle of whiskey in my suitcase. Fortunately the bottle I bought came in a very sturdy can and I wrapped it in a towel I packed.