See what toucan do - Guinness

Entance to the chamber

Though I fought it at first, the kids rallied and we headed back to Newgrange for a second try.  These last days are a bit strained.  We want the trip to end; we don’t want it to end.  

We are close enough to the end to start thinking about all the things we have to do once we reach our next destination - home for us and Germany for Ken.   We are holding together, but our differences seem a little magnified.  It is making things a little bittersweet.  

One of our differences is our approach to the day.  Ken wants to leave at 7am and be at Newgrange when it opens.  (It is about 40 minutes north of Dublin.)  I prefer to enjoy our fabulous Four Season beds for a few extra hours.  Ken needs breakfast and coffee as soon as he wakes, I can be content on a glass of water for an hour or so before the blood sugar starts to plummet.  

We sleep in, then we scramble to get out before am becomes pm.

Finally - a suitable cup!

Riley shrunk to the size of a Leprechaun

After a very cool experience at Newgrange, we double down and go to the National Leprchaun Museum.  Yup.   The kids totally dug it.

Original nick name:  Bono Vox of O'Connell Street

Then you’ll never guess where we went next.  It had grown cold and rainy and so we were going to tour the Guinness Brewery.  But we had to make one little pit stop first. 
 
See that store front?  It’s where some punk teenager named Paul took his stage name.  

I could probably write a blog post that was made up entirely of U2 lyrics, but this is the only U2-related thing I did in Dublin.  Had they been in town and not on tour, I probably would have made us drive to Dalkey to try a sighting.  But U2 were in Italy and I was in Dublin, so this is as good as it gets.

Ordering up our pints

Guinness was incredible.  Like Willy Wonka for adults.  It even has its own Wonkavator.  It might be worth a trip to Dublin just for these few hours.  You wind your way through nine stories of barley goodness to have a complimentary pint at the top.  Yum.  

We learned important things about the history of Guinness, like why they have a Toucan as a mascot, and generally had a silly time of it – I pushed Riley into a barley pit, much to Ken’s chagrin.  We lightened our wallets at the gift shop and headed back to the hotel.

In front of the Wonka-like beer waterfall, Ken explains the importance of clean water when making beer