A Guinness Each Day

[target2019]

We're one week in to several away, visiting Ireland, Germany and Netherlands. Boomers blow the dough...

Aer Lingus is very well run. We landed, got a no frills auto, and drove to Galway. We survived and so has our marriage. Galway is a beautiful port. The city is smallish, and easy to take in.

The House Hotel was a convenient boutique hotel. Three nights was just right for the Yanks.

A Guiness each evening is one of my goals.

 

[Bamaman]

Just remember to drive on the "other" side of the road. Be careful as Ireland's a difficult place to drive in--especially on the back roads.

I've always been impressed with the head that they have on Guinness. But as you get farther along in your trip, the beer even tastes better. Drinking Heineken beer at a sidewalk cafe beside a canal in Amsterdam makes for a great day.

Have a great trip.

 

[target2019]

In the OP you can see our first meal in Galway, at Skeffs on Eyre Square. We watched the national soccer game, and then strolled around the square. There are many uni students in the town, and especially in that area, where there are several pubs around the square. Quite large bouncers stand outside each establishment. We heard many US accents from the students as we inched back to the hotel.

 

[Out of Steam]

Just remember to drive on the "other" side of the road. Be careful as Ireland's a difficult place to drive in--especially on the back roads.

I'm back from Ireland just a few weeks and agree on the challenges of driving there. After scraping a car off a stone wall at the edge of a road there some years ago, I gave up on dealing with manual shifting with the opposite hand.

 

[BH58]

Love the goal of a Guinness a day! It is so much fresher in Ireland than here. We were in Ireland in August and had a wonderful time. We also started by driving to Galway. It was touch and go in the rental car parking lot as my husband was practicing driving with a shift after not having done it in many years plus being on the opposite side of the road. Thought for a minute there we were going to just have to cancel the rental car and get a hotel in Dublin but he figured it out and did a great job of getting us all around the Wild Atlantic Way and Northern Ireland.

 

[Souschef]

We cheated and took a bus tour. It was quite exciting to watch it navigate some of those country roads

 

[RobbieB]

I like the cans with the "fizz capsule", I like Guinness -

And I like pouring it into a proper glass and watching the "rain" come down.

 

[target2019]

Love the goal of a Guinness a day! It is so much fresher in Ireland than here. We were in Ireland in August and had a wonderful time. We also started by driving to Galway. It was touch and go in the rental car parking lot as my husband was practicing driving with a shift after not having done it in many years plus being on the opposite side of the road. Thought for a minute there we were going to just have to cancel the rental car and get a hotel in Dublin but he figured it out and did a great job of getting us all around the Wild Atlantic Way and Northern Ireland.

Very similar experience in the parking lot. My driver could not start the car. Lol. Driving the main roads is stressing, but not as bad as some are saying. Everything you learned in the U.S. must be reversed in your mental mirror.

Day 2 was spent on wandering on the Long Walk, both sides of the bay. I was very tired, and rested in the room. My everything took the very long walk to Salthill. That tried her out. Dinner for two at McSwiggans, a very Irish meal of vegetable stew, black bread, Cauliflower Steak. How many Guiness? At least one for each!

 

[Ronstar]

A Guinness a day - I like it. And Guinness seemed to taste better in Ireland than anywhere else. People at the brewery say that all Guinness exported to the US has preservatives - probably why it tastes better in Ireland.

 

[MRG]

Many years ago, early 1990s, I was sent to the UK to review a couple of client's systems. I went there with a younger guy, RIP. We both liked stouts but the hotel only had Beamish, another Irish stout, on tap.

In any case we were there for 6 weeks and every night we wrote a status report on my coworkers personal PC and faxed it to our management. We also called room service for them to start pouring 4 Beamish, they take 5 minutes for a proper pour, to be bought up. Sometimes we would order more too, but our Megacorp management always had a daily status of what was going on with our UK clients.

We learned the hotel staff had named us "the Beamish boys" during our stay! We were both called to the CIO's office when we got back. He handed us both a large check for what we had done.

 

[braumeister]

A Guinness a day - I like it. And Guinness seemed to taste better in Ireland than anywhere else. People at the brewery say that all Guinness exported to the US has preservatives - probably why it tastes better in Ireland.

Beer always tastes best in the country where it's brewed simply because it's fresher. There are*few beers in the world with more than a six month shelf life, and they start going downhill as soon as it leaves the brewery.

 

[braumeister]

We learned the hotel staff had named us "the Beamish boys" during our stay!

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”

He chortled in his joy.

-- from "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll

 

[Chuckanut]

Several years ago a number of us ended up at a bar and we all ordered a Guinness. The bartender apparently was not up on how to pour a proper Guinness. He filled a pitcher with the brew and brought it to us telling us that we actually would be getting more bear that way. I had been looking forward to that Guinness and was profoundly disappointed. The wonderful creamy head was exhausted and the brew simply did not taste right. Maybe the carbonation was getting exhausted?

Do I dare mention Murphy's? I had one on the advice of an Australian chap I was sitting next to at a pub in Ireland. Not bad.

Murphy's Irish Stout is a stout brewed at the Murphy's Brewery in Cork, Ireland.

 

[Sojourner]

i like the cans with the "fizz capsule", i like guinness -

and i like pouring it into a proper glass and watching the "rain" come down.

+1

 

[Ronstar]

I’ve had 2 Guinness experiences in the last 2 weeks.

First one in a local bar I got half a plastic cup full when the keg went dry. Almost all foam.

Second one in an Irish pub in the Las Vegas airport. They served it in a Pilsner glass(not right) and the keg went dry at about 3/4 of a glass.

We took the Guinness pouring lessons at the brewery. IIRC, there’s a mark on the Guinness pint glass marking the location to tip the glass to vertical when the beer gets to the mark.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I watched a documentary a few nights ago about Irish pubs. It was a collection of interviews of the owners and customers. One of the fellas they interviewed (customer) was over 100 years old and had been visiting the pub since he 12 or 13 and had a Guinness everyday. He looked pretty darn good for 100+ years old...

Personally, I prefer Smithwick's but will drink a Guinness if I *have* to.

 

[Chuckanut]

I’ve had 2 Guinness experiences in the last 2 weeks.

First one in a local bar I got half a plastic cup full when the keg went dry. Almost all foam.

[emphasis added]

That is almost as bad as Starbucks serving cappuccino in a paper cup. Just awful.

 

[Ronstar]

[emphasis added]

That is almost as bad as Starbucks serving cappuccino in a paper cup. Just awful.

Around here, plastic cups are served during busy fall festival days. Probably for safety. But you’re right - it was awful.

 

[target2019]

Day #3 - in Galway

And on the third day we visited churches. Saint Nicholas' Collegiate Church (1320) was what you'd expect in a medieval church. Built in stages, there were large gravestones throughout the floor. Large columns, carved statues, and a single stone cross at the rear of the church.

Galway Cathedral is the newest cathedral in Europe, dedicated in 1965. Dedicated to Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and Saint Nicholas, the interior is not as expected, being more modern.

After dinner we returned to the hotel. I had a goodnight Guiness.

 

[target2019]

A Guinness a day - I like it. And Guinness seemed to taste better in Ireland than anywhere else. People at the brewery say that all Guinness exported to the US has preservatives - probably why it tastes better in Ireland.

It is fresher and smoother, poured in certain way.

Löwenbräu tasted in Munich was a similar experience.

Along the way we'll visit Guiness Storehouse to check with the experts.

 

[target2019]

The 4th day was a memorable one. For a few years I've conversed with a 4th cousin who leaves near Longford. His father was one of the DNA matches who I could not place, but later learned was an important clue to my Irish great grandfather. As a teen he emigrated from Wales, and was born there to Irish parents. His parents likely left the Bornacoola area before the 1850's.

Galway decided to give us a downpour as we left the hotel. That was fine, and we accepted the driving challenge. Instead of a meandering drive, we took the M6/N53 route as it would be safer in the weather.

We arrived an hour early, and drove to a small cafe to check with cousin. The walls were covered with photos and articles about Michael Collins, an important figure in the fight for independence. His picture is below.

At 2pm we drove to cousin's house and were greeted by Sammie, an enthusiastic and friendly dog for us strangers.

We sat with my cousin, and got to know even more about our likes. Within an hour his father, brother and sister came over, and we carried on the tale telling in the dining room.

By 6pm we all had other destinations, so it was off to the Augherea House.

 

[ERD50]

...

A Guinness each evening is one of my goals.

Why cut back? You're on vacation!


-ERD50

 

[target2019]

On day five my cousin took us three Yanks (our son arrived evening before) around the counties of Longford, Leitrim and Roscommon. Carrick-on-Shannon, and several smaller villages were taken in. We walked through a few cemeteries too (great fun for some of us). We encountered cows being driven back from pastures, and that provided a closeup look of times past for us. The cows were moving quite fast and my cousin set a hard fence with the car, so the cows turned right into the farm yard, as if it were all planned. On the road we also stopped next to oncoming cars and talked about herds and weather.

 

[target2019]

On day six we departed Augherea House, said goodbye to the sheep outside our bedroom window, and #1 son drove us to Dublin airport. Hotel Riu was a taxi drive away. We checked in underneath the colorful glass hanging art piece. When the sun set we were at Ha'penny Bridge, and then had Ramen at Yamamori. Two Guiness back at the hotel, for good measure.

 

[Souschef]

This is supposed to be the oldest pub in Dublin. That is DW with the publican.