For our next trip we
headed for Dublin, Ireland to see Jason Van Hout and to meet his fiancé Nicola.
Not really sure what to expect, we found it entertaining to hear the Customs
Officer turn to his colleague and say “Are we letting Kiwis in?” with a sly
smile.
We were then annoyed
at the realisation that our cell phones had been disconnected from Global
Roaming, so faced the weekend without modern technology.
Greeted at the airport
by Jason and Nicola, we headed for our hotel (down the road from where Jason
and Nicola live) in Leixlip . It
was called The Courtyard Hotel. We
checked into our hotel under the name “Van Hoff” –an accidental error by the
hotel, which lead to a lot of jokes! We headed to an Italian restaurant for
dinner and then back to the hotel bar for a couple of pints of Guinness (for
James anyway). Was fun catching up after a fair few years. We also learnt from
Nicola that the Guinness family live just down the road from the hotel at Leixlip
Castle.
With Jason playing
Rugby on Saturday, James and I headed for Dublin to tour around. Firstly we
headed up the road on foot to search for the Leixlip castle. Finding the gates
open, we walked in took a few pictures.
We then caught a bus
into Dublin. We used a hop on/hop off bus, with commentary of the sights and
history of Dublin. We stopped at
St Stevens Park for a walk around (lovely manicured gardens and very vivid
green grass) and also strolled through Temple Bar, filled with Irish pubs,
souvenir shops, and cobblestoned streets. The main focus of the day was to tour
through the Guinness Factory, the third most popular brand tour attraction in
the world, behind VW and Hersheys.
It was a great tour, we followed the brewing stages to learn how
Guinness was made, we got to pour our own pint of Guinness (which
coincidentally is not poured with a shamrock on top-James now keeps a sharp eye
on how the bartenders pour his Guinness!) and view Dublin from the Observation
Desk (the highest point in Dublin). We also learnt that Arthur Guinness poured
his first pint of Porter (the beer he later developed into Guinness) at the
site of our hotel (an old brewery).
The first taste of Guinness was really good, even I enjoyed it, as it
didn’t seem to have such a strong after bite like back in NZ! James loved every minute of the tour!
We thought it was funny watching some people try Guinness, then pull a sour
face afterwards! And others
(including James) that almost cried at the sight of people leaving left over
pints at the tables…criminal!
We then headed back to
the hotel, had dinner and headed for the Barnhill Rugby Clubrooms, where we
meet up again with Jason and Nicola. It was a grand night, with lots of
drinking and a great band playing.
For some reason, the Heinikan Cup was circulating around and we managed
to get our hands on it for a photo (it’s the Irish version of the NZ NPC). We
just missed out on a photo op with the Six Nations Trophy too, sadly.
Sunday was a slow
start. We checked out of our hotel and headed for the coast with Jason and
Nicola. We stopped at a pub in Howth, and had some yummy seafood chowder and
mussels. We got some Irish history
from Nicola, around how England adversely affected Ireland. Something we will
read up on some more.
We headed for the
airport, stopping once more for a final pint of Guinness and so Jason could
show us Hurling on TV. A very strange but skilful game!
It was awesome to
catch up with Jason and Nicola, we had a really great weekend.
James notes: First the
Guinness was amazing 2) What we saw of Ireland was beautiful, 3) Nicola is to
good looking for Van Hoff 4) The English absolutely shafted the Irish.
