On to happy thoughts!\u00a0 The main reason we ended up on this trip to Ireland and Scotland was our friends William and Myra had been planning this for years to celebrate William’s 50th Birthday.\u00a0 Myra’s birthday was just 3 days after Williams.\u00a0 Happy birthday guys!<\/p>\n
We connected with them at the hotel and headed across the street to St. Stephen’s Green.\u00a0 Here is a shot of the entire group.<\/p>\n On the left is William’s Aunt Sande.\u00a0 On the right is William’s sister Sharilyn.\u00a0 This would be our touring group for the next 10 days.\u00a0 Yes, those poor people had to put up with me for over a week!!\u00a0 To lessen the pain we had to find a pub.\u00a0 Here are the ladies as we walked through the Temple Bar area of town.<\/p>\n The most famous pub in Dublin is “The” Temple Bar, located in the Temple Bar area.\u00a0 Confused yet?\u00a0 It’s no wonder these people drink heavily!<\/p>\n The place was JAM PACKED so we found a different bar for our “Welcome to Dublin” pint.\u00a0 It’s worth noting the band inside was playing Sweet Caroline to the large drunk crowd.\u00a0 William and I came back by later to pick up some whiskey next door, and they were playing the same song, although likely to a different drunk crowd.\u00a0 I had no idea Neil Diamond was Irish!<\/p>\n While on a bus tour we saw these two buildings that are built right into each other.\u00a0 There has to be some interesting history on the construction here!<\/p>\n The next morning we decided to take a road trip to Howth, on the east coast of Ireland.\u00a0 They have a pretty efficient train system heading there…the hardest part is finding the train station!\u00a0 First we visited Howth Castle, which appears to need some major refurbishment.<\/p>\n I’m a sucker for neolithic sites, so we we stopped at Howth Dolmen nearby, and I’ve got to say for dolmens it’s pretty impressive!<\/p>\n We then made our way to the coast for a short hike along the waterfront.\u00a0 We couldn’t stay long as we had a train to catch back to Dublin.<\/p>\n The sun even made a brief appearance!<\/p>\n Heading back down the path towards Howth.<\/p>\n Back in Dublin we had a scheduled tour of Jameson Distillery.<\/p>\n This was one of the better tours, as the tour guide was engaging and funny.\u00a0 We had another distillery tour where the tour guide THOUGHT she was funny…but that’s another story.<\/p>\n Part of the tour is educating you on the aromas of the various components going into the whiskey.<\/p>\n This display depicts how much color the whiskey takes on as it ages.\u00a0 All of the color in whiskey comes from the barrels they are aged in.\u00a0 I have to admit I didn’t know this going in, but then I’m not much of a whiskey drinker.<\/p>\n On to the most important part, the tasting.<\/p>\n Whiskey is still not my thing, but if I had to choose one the Crested was the best of the bunch.<\/p>\n William shows off his selfie skills on a regular basis.\u00a0 This is in the bar after the tour, drinking our complimentary Jameson cocktails.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/petersontravels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/20221024_105942-scaled.jpg\")
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