After an action packed first day in Dublin our second day was a little more sedate, plus it was Stuart’s birthday so an excuse for some celebrating!
Our morning began much like many mornings in Ireland, with an Irish breakfast. We wanted to head back to Tang but it was shut, today we were lucky enough to get a table at Beanhive.
The breakfast was tasty and the weather blissful. After we filled up on food and coffee we began our walk towards the river.
On the way we stopped at The Whisky Museum which is right across the road from Trinity College. Interestingly you cannot serve alcohol before 12:30pm in Ireland – imagine that! No champagne with brunch!!!!
The Whisky Museum is a cute little museum above a shop that takes you through the history of whisky in Ireland. Our tour guide walked us through several rooms covering off how whisky became such a staple in Ireland from the process of making it to the history of whisky companies. It was really interesting and the group size isn’t too big. If you don’t know much about whisky then I’d highly recommend this.
Plus to finish the tour you get a 3 whisky tasting session. The guide talks you through the whisky you’re drinking and explaining when it is okay to add a drop of water. 3 whiskies are included but you can upgrade to have 4. I still don’t like whisky (or Scotch), no matter how smooth people saying it is my throat burns and it is not enjoyable. Stuart still very much likes whisky (although prefers Scotch!)
Unusually we didn’t purchase anything, as we’re in Ireland for a week we opted to pick up some whisky later on. After a couple of hours in the museum we finally made it to the river in search of the Ha’penny Bridge.
Listed as a top attraction but for the life of me I’m not sure why. It is basically a pedestrian bridge over the river that used to charge a toll for the pleasure. Perhaps we were tired, perhaps we hadn’t had enough whisky but we just didn’t see the attraction.
Our next ‘tourist attraction’ also fitted the same bill – the Dublin Spire. A tall spike in the middle of a road nicknamed the ‘stiletto in the ghetto’ it is occasionally lit up at night, but only on special occasions as it’s really expensive!
We stopped for some birthday donuts from The Rolling Donut in place of a birthday cake and ate them whilst looking at said spire. The Rolling Donut is AWESOME! Their donuts are flavourful and sweet. I opted for their traditional chocolate donut ‘The Dub’ and Stuart went for a Banoffee Pie version. We even obtained an additional three (Coffee, Salted Caramel & Pistachio and Lemon Curd) to eat for breakfast the next day.
Our ability to walk for the day was almost up but luckily Temple Bar was nearby. We stopped at Gogarty’s for a couple of pints sat by a window watching the world go by whilst a band played. It was a nice pub, full of tourists, but that didn’t detract from the charm too much.
After a few pints we had a pit stop at the hotel to pack for our road trip the next day and a drink at Sophie’s bar. Taking over the top floor of our hotel Sophie’s is an industrial style bar and restaurant. They do awesome cocktail and we wish we had stayed there for dinner, especially with the flop that was Pitt Bro’s.
Pitt Bro’s have two locations in Dublin, their original location and a new one at Millennium Walkway. Do not go to Millennium Walkway. We booked a table for 7:30pm not realising this was 30 minutes before closing, there were no other diners, the food was dry and tasteless and we didn’t get our free ice cream. As lovers of BBQ we were extremely disappointed, especially as it was a birthday dinner.
To recover we of course went for a pint of Guinness before heading in for the night. Sunday nights are much quieter than Saturdays so we didn’t feel we were missing too much opting for an early night.
Dublin captivating us, gave us a wonderful dose of history and culture along with a new love of Guinness!
