Dublin Walking Tour

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Exhaustion prevailed this morning, and we decided to skip the National Gallery and sleep. Even with a couple more hours it still wasn’t enough. As I write this entry it is Sunday morning, and while we are up and in the process of getting ready, we are both still very tired. So much so, that it is prompting us to re visit the entire itinerary to see how we can make the trip a bit more relaxing, we tend to try and do way too much, and we are not as young as we use to be.

Back to our Saturday. The forecast was for rain, but the turned out to be pretty nice and no rain, a little overcast but no rain. With the last start most of the day turned into a walking tour as we didn’t get to St. Patrick’s Cathedral by our timed entry. Most of our day was spent in the Dublin Castle area of Dublin. To get there we took the Lusa (this is the Dublin light rail). We had purchased a 72-hour visitor pass prior to leaving so we have unlimited rides while we are here. The Lusa runs pretty frequently and is very clean. There is a stop a block from the hotel, so it is pretty easy for use to access. We went about 5 stops to Four Courts, which is across the river Liffey from Christ Church.

Travel trip: A Lusa visitor card is a great deal. They system is generally on schedule and it gets you to most of the areas you are going to want to see while in Dublin. You can purchase the card long before you arrive and it will be mailed to you. They come in 24-, 48- and 72-hour cards.

First stop on the walking tour is Christ Church. Originally built in 1048 by the Vikings, completely out of wood. Over the years the wood was replaced by the Normans with stone. Interestingly it is a protestant cathedral in a country that is 70% catholic. It was also built prior to the largest cathedral in Dublin, St. Patrick’s.

Across from Christ Church is Dublinia. This is dedicated to the history of the Vikings on the Island of Ireland.

Just down the hill, maybe 5 blocks is St. Patrick’s. He we took advantage of the large park outside the cathedral to review the days itinerary. Jerry also got several pictures. St. Patrick’s was built in 1192 (well over 100 years after Christ Church). It is classic English Gothic in style. It was of course named after St. Patrick the patron Saint of Ireland. The site where it is built is believed to be the site where he baptized the first converts to Catholicism. The church also has a literary history as well, one of the most prominent Deans of St. Patrick was Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver’s Travels. His tomb in in the church, but his heart is in Rome.

Around the corner from St. Patrick’s, on St. Patrick’s close is Marsh’s Library. This is the first public library in Ireland founded by Archbishop of Ireland Narcissus Marsh in 1701. Inside there are 250 manuscripts (of what I have no idea) and 25,000 books. All of them are behind cages. There seems to be two opposing views as to why the books are in cages: The first, is the didn’t want the students to take the books for their own; the second, and far more likely in my opinion, is that the books were locked in cages to prevent the locals from taking them to burn and keep warm.

The next stop was the Chester Beatty Library, part of Dublin Castle. The library is from a collection of Islamic, Early Christian and Far Eastern religious art and manuscripts. The collection was donated to Ireland by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty. I have no idea who he is, but he gathered what is considered one of the most significant collections of this type of art. We did go in here. There are three half floors to cover so it can be done fairly quickly, unless you are really in to religious art and artifacts. The second floor is dedicated to an exhibit based on the major religions of the world, including Buddhism and variations there on, Islam and variations there on, Christianity (mostly catholic). The section devote to Judaism was incredibly small, almost seemed like an afterthought.

The next stop was lunch at the oldest chipper in Dublin, Leo Burdock. It is a very small takeout only establishment located just down the street from Dublin Castle and around the corner form Christ Church. We arrived just before the line started forming. The place serves classic fish and ships and a couple of other options like shrimp, battered sausage and battered burgers. They have sole or cod and you get it fresh or smoked. Today they were out of the sole and only had fresh no smoked. We both had the classic, wrapped in butcher paper instead of newsprint. It was good, not the best I have ever had, but still a decent fish and chips. It did need more salt and vinegar.

Once you get your fish, head back to Christ Church and have lunch on the grounds. We were lucky and managed to get a spot at the only table on the grounds. The grounds may not always be available as there could be a wedding or other event. Today there was an event of some sort, but we managed to be able to finish our lunch before were told the grounds were closing.

After lunch we headed down the street to Dublin City Hall. A wedding was just finishing up as they were all climbing back on the double decker bus to be transported to, I guess the reception. It was a custom bus and champagne was flowing. Apparently, they have double decker busses for any purpose including afternoon tea.

The original schedule was to head to the National Museum of Decorative Arts. We opted out as it was a bit out of the way and we didn’t think we could fit it in before our last stop of the day, Old Jameson Distillery.

The last stop on the day’s itinerary was Old Jameson Distillery at Bow Street. It is in the Smithfield area of Dublin. At one time it is where the city markets were located now it is a very trendy neighborhood similar to the Pearl in Portland, Oregon, or Hudson Yards in New York. Jameson no longer distills whiskey at the Bow St., location it is all done in Cork. They have turned some of the original buildings in to a visitor center where they give several different whiskey tours. We took the basic tour to learn about the process and included a three-whiskey taste comparison at the end and a free whiskey cocktail. I am not much of a whiskey drinkery so this was very educational for me, and turns out I like whiskey. I couldn’t drink it every day, or even more than one when I do have some, but it was good. I am excited to compare it to Scotch Whiskey when we get to Scotland.

The tour was fun and educational. The bar that is open to the public was full of, well you know, entitled young people drinking. The tour guide was very new but still knowledgeable. If you didn’t know you were in Dublin you would by the end of this tour. I am pretty sure I have never been on any tour anywhere in the world, where the guide through around the f word as much as this kid did. And he was a kid, I could be his father maybe even grandfather. (That is a phrase I don’t want to ever say again.)

At the end of the tour Jerry and I both had a Jameson, ginger ale & lime cocktail. It was very refreshing and beats the hell out of a mint julip any day. We enjoyed out cocktail and rested our feet. We were not done for the day. It was time for shopping for things we did not remember to back and Jerry need a new hat.

We headed to Mark Spencer, where Jerry found his hat and we bought some more wash clothes. Wash clothes are something that hotels don’t seem to be very good and providing. We also got some wine for the room for the rest of our time in Dublin. By the time we got back to the room we had 25 minutes to shave and change for dinner. Has to be a world record for Jerry getting ready, any other time would be a minimum of an hour.

Dinner for the night was 30 minutes by cab from our hotel, in a very posh neighborhood. One street we drove down the driver said was the richest street in all of Dublin. That may be but they needed to pave the road, it had more pot holes than any street in New York. We were headed for Mulberry Garden, a quaint restaurant tucked away off the street. If you didn’t know where it was, which we didn’t’, you would never find it. Fortunately for us the driver knew exactly where it was, no GPS required.

When I say quaint, I mean quaint, it has an outside garden area where you can have drinks before or after your meal. The dinning room is small and intimate, even a real fire place (not in use tonight) that we were seated by. There is no menu, you either have the 3-course (yes there are choices for each course) or the 6 course which there is no choices, but they do alter for any allergies or intolerances (and we are very intolerant of kale and beets). When I made the reservation, I pre-booked the 6-course tasting menu (which come to find out you had to or you could not order it). We of course added the premium Wine pairing. We got to keep the menus so it will make the next part of this blog considerably easier, because I would never have been bale to right down everything in my little black book I always bring when we eat out.

Mulberry Garden – 6 Course Tasting Menu

I do not remember the wines, but they were perfectly matched to each and every course and started with two glasses of champagne.

The Amuse Busch – seaweed waffle cone (sort of) filled with cod foam and trout roe and a cheddar cheese puff.

First course – Mackerel, Rhubarb, lightly pickled rhubarb with elderflower and apple served with perfectly and lightly seared mackerel. Never really had mackerel before, but this preparation was quite tasty. Served with a French Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire Valley.

Second course – Beef Tartare, classic tartare (blended with mustard and hazelnut) topped with truffle mayonnaise and watercress. Possibly the best we have ever had, definitely top three. Served with a very nice Nebbiolo.

Third course – Halibut, served over asparagus, morels and beurre rouge. This is an Oregonian’s delight. Jerry thought it was a bit salty, I thought it was heaven. It was paired with a very night French Chablis.

Fourth course – Pork, loin and belly, served with a smoked bacon sauce and lightly pickled turnip. Star of this dish was the roasted wild garlic roux. I wasn’t a fan of the turnip but Jerry felt it paired well with the pork and sauce. The wine was a nice Bordeaux.

Palate cleanser – whiskey tasting class of panna cotta with a lemon foam.

Fifth course – Yeast Parafait, with white chocolate and rhubarb crumble. Sweet but not too sweet. Paired with an Austrian dessert wine.

Six Course – Election of Hand-crafted cheese and a fennel seed cracker. The cheeses were: Domaine de Bresse from France; Durrus from County Cork; Killen Blue Goat Cheese from County Galway. This was paired with a Portuguese Port.

Finally, petit fours; one chocolate one pistachio

As you can see the six-course tasting menu was really 9, but while full did not feel Thanksgiving stuffed. It was a great meal one of the best in many many months.

It was a very good ending to a long day of walking (11,532 steps). We even managed to hail a cab back to the hotel easily. We didn’t get back to the room and in bed until 1. We rarely stay up that late on vacation, because our days start so early, and Sunday would not be an exception to that rule.

The dish of the day was very difficult, every course at dinner was a flavor sensation. Rarely do I choose co-dishes of the day, but the decision was just too difficult so the dishes of the day are the Pork and Beef Tartare.

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Photos

Beef Tartare
Co-Dish of the Day

Pork
Co Dish of the Day