Sunny Dublin - Jellen's Adventures

What’s better than sunny blue skies of promise for Dublin today. We put our new walking shoes (we wore out our others) on, ate a great breakfast and headed out to explore this cool city. The streets were quiet, St Stephen’s Park wasn’t even unlocked yet and Grafton Street was empty.

We did meet up with Philip Lynott from Thin Lizzie, an Irish musician, songwriter and poet.

Don’t have any of his music in my playlist but will check him out

We also passed Molly Malone

Sally sang the song about her “cockles and muscles 🎶 “ and hours later I still can’t get it out of my wee head 🤪

Also empty & quiet in the Temple Bar neighborhood as we headed to the River Liffey…

Met up with some other fellas along the way

…For a visit to Ha’Penny bridge. Before the Ha’penny Bridge was built there were seven ferries, operated by William Walsh, across the Liffey. The ferries were in bad condition and he had to either fix them or build a bridge. Walsh chose the latter option and the bridge was opened in May 1816, with Walsh holding the right to extract a ha’penny toll from anyone crossing it for 100 years.The toll was increased for a time to a penny-ha’penny (1+1⁄2 pence), but was eventually dropped in 1919. While the toll was in operation, there were turnstiles at either end of the bridge.

No longer have to pay a toll whew cause who has a 1/2 penny

Onward we have a date with a pint

Arthur Guinness (c. 24 September1725 – 23 January 1803) was an Irish brewer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. The inventor of Guinness beer, he founded the Guinness Brewery at St. James’s Gate in 1759.

We keep learning more about the man Arthur Guinness and his amazing brew. I must get a book on the history, it’s so interesting and he was quite influential in Dublin, in Ireland, in the world. We heard today he signed a lease for the St James Gate street property for 9,000 years back in the 1700’s. He knew his creation would live forever.

Guinness purchased his first brewery in Leixlip in 1755. This first brewery, was a three-story building that ran from the street to the River Liffey. The river provided him with easy access to water for brewing and for power, while barley was grown in neighbouring farms. Hops, meanwhile, could be easily brought from Dublin, as Leixlip sat along the main Dublin—Galway road. The origin of Guinness’s yeast is unknown, but is likely from Kildare and possibly originated from the White Hart Inn.

Arthur Guinness believed that the duty of the wealthy and powerful was to set a strong moral example for their citizenry and looked unfavourably at what he viewed as displays of excess. 💥

We are happy to learn more, tour the brewery’s amazing history, listen to music and watch Irish dancers, tour some more and get a pint in just a few hours…

So much to see and learn, and now it’s a lovely day for a Guinness

We went through a room with the smells of the hops and barley and were given a baby Guinness to learn how to properly drink this magic.

We enjoyed our pint on the rooftop bar. Time to explore the genius advertising of Guinness. Of course we had a bit of fun with the famous characters.

We’re off with a smile on our faces and one more stop on this gorgeous 🌞 Sunday in Dublin town.

St Patrick’s Cathedral. Since Saint Patrick baptised Christian converts nearby over 1500 years ago, this holy site has been a place of spiritual encounter for countless generations.

An amazing day about to end with a walk in the sun to our home away from home. Sally found us tickets for the famous dublin jail kilmainham tomorrow morning…not an easy task. Excited to put our feet up and have a nice Irish gin to end our day.

Wait one more stop and treasure in our neighborhood…

St Kevin’s Church. We have lots of special “Kevin’s” in our lives. Our father and brother, Sally’s son and a nephew. Love our Kevin’s 💚🤍🧡