Guinness is good for you!

P1060909|10-MAY-2015|  After a good night’s sleep (no midnight post-travel wake up!) we enjoyed a nice breakfast at our B&B before heading out for a day of touristing. First up, Trinity College, and then Temple Bar, followed by the famous Guinness Storehouse for their tour and 7th floor Gravity Bar. It’s no joke, Guinness is everywhere here. The afternoon was for shopping – fashion and records.

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We had a fabulous dinner at Damascus Gate, a nearby Lebanese restaurant. Fantastic!
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Trinity College – founded in 1592 on the site of an Augustinian monastery.

Next up, Guinness Storehouse, the visitor’s center adjacent to the St. James Gate Brewery.  Originally built in 1902, the Storehouse was used as a fermentation house and continued as part of the active brewery until 1986. Work began to convert the building to the visitor’s center in 1997 and re-opened in 2000. The walking tour of the Storehouse takes you through the brewing process, the history of Guinness as a brand and an impressive archive of the iconic advertising.

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Did you know the Toucan first appeared in 1935?
The Storehouse is 125ft high, so the Gravity Bar on the 7th floor offers fantastic views of the city while you enjoy a pint. Mind you, there is nothing in the way of the view – it is flat, flat, flat with not a high-rise in sight.

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Next up – Dublin in infrared – I brought it to shoot creepy castles, but the cityscape presented some interesting subjects today. Campanile, the 98ft bell tower on the campus of Trinity College, was built in 1853.

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A little afternoon shopping. Stopped in at Fly London and picked up these great boots. Then ran across an Irish wool shop where I picked up a few woven scarves.

Couture. —>

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Jeff’s Notes:  For those of you, like me, who have fond memories of spending countless hours hanging out at Tower Records back before they went bankrupt, well, Dublin is the place for you.  Because they still have a Tower Records here.  No joke.  And almost the entire upstairs (along with a big chunk of the entry area) is devoted to vinyl.  They still had a bunch of Record Store Day merchandise on display, which was good news for me because that included some UK/Europe only pressings.  Which is how I came to own a copy of John Grant’s performance with the BBC Orchestra today.

Man, if only our room had a record player…