Nov 1-4: Dublin, Ireland
This trip was a bit off the cuff, but a delightful way to spend the weekend!
It was meant to rain all weekend, so we planned to stay in Dublin and made it a food and whiskey-focused weekend. It was a good call.
We arrived Friday the 1st and got checked in to our adorable hotel, Stauntons on the Green. We went out for a late dinner at Ely Wine Bar - it was excellent and packed at 9pm. Saturday we checked out the castle so you could see a display of china and then headed out to see St. Patrick’s Cathedral only to discover that it was closed for the day for a graduation. So, we found some coffee and hung out in the rain ahead of our big plans for the day: Whiskey Tasting. We went to the Liberties Distillery which is a pretty new spot in the city. The tour was just us and an enthusiastic Irish family - we had a great time. To top it off, the whiskey was really very good and we stuck around the bar for an extra cocktail at the end chatting with the bartender about the Swiss Air Force. That night we headed to dinner with Eimear at L Mulligan Grocer. The food was excellent.
Sunday we had reservations to tour the Kilmainham Goal. On our way there we stopped off at Christ’s Church Cathedral which was stunning on the inside. They also had a display in the crypt featuring a taxidermied cat and rat that were found in their organ. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever seen. The tour guide at the prison was a bit on the hammy side, but it was super interesting - it turns out neither one of us know all that much about 19th & 20th century Irish history and we certainly knew more by the end of the tour!
That evening we had one of my favorite meals from this year - we did the tasting menu at Forest & Marcy. The atmosphere was lovely - very relaxed, bar seating. And the food was excellent from start to finish. I think you have the menu somewhere. We should put it up here.
On Monday, you had to go in to the office, so I went to Trinity to check out the Book of Kells only to discover that, as of that day, it was out for restorations. So, I checked out the library and the exhibit and then went on my merry way.
