Dublin, Ireland: Powerscourt Gardens: Guiness Brewery

National Geographic voted the Powerscourt Gardens 3rd best in the world right behind Château deVersailles, in France and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, in England.  The gardens and grand Palladian villa at Powerscourt, just south of Dublin, were designed in the 18th century and accentuate 1947 acres of formal walled gardens and shaded ponds. The grounds, waterfalls, parks, garden pavilions, and fine tree-lined arbors were suggested by the Italian Renaissance and the great estates and gardens of France and Germany. Cascading terraces and formal landscapes are planned with carefully designed walks that are framed by the gentle beauty of the Wicklow Mountains.  The FLTT stopped there this morning.  The gardens are deserving of the National Geographic's praise.  Sandy and I wandered through the formal gardens of the estate and neither of us expected to see something like this in Ireland.

You drink Guinness because it's good for you.  That's what they say.  Today we went to the birthplace of Guinness and Irish production center.  The Storehouse, on the Guinness Dublin campus, is now the Visitor Center, sort of a beer museum, where one can learn much about the brewing of their "black" stout.  Of course, none of us are there for the learning but rather the drinking.  We all reached the 7th floor Gravity Bar quickly and enjoyed a cold glass their beer.  Why?  Because it is good for us. 

Kilkenny, Ireland: Blarney Castle: Rock of Cashel

 The Blarney Stone can be found built into the battlements of Blarney Castle which is just a few miles from Cork.  First thing in the morning the FLTT headed there.  Had I been traveling independently I would have bypassed this place as being nothing but a tourist magnet.  I would have made a mistake.  It is touristy ... way touristy ... but with reason.  Kissing the stone is pretty stupid, so, of course, I did it.  Sandy maintained her dignity, took my picture and abstained.  But climbing the 120 steps to the top of the castle where the stone is, led us to platforms overviewing the charming countryside of County Cork.  Well worth the climb.  What is best about the site however is the 60 acres of lawn and gardens.  We spent the better part of an hour and a half walking the grounds and admiring both the natural and the manicured settings.

From Blarney we went to the religious ruins of the Rock of Cashel.  This is a huge ruins of a church that was at times the seat of the ancient kings of Munster, where St. Patrick wrestled with the devil and then baptized King Aengus.  And where the local clans fought over the Church for hundreds of years.  Now it is the final resting place of the archbishop Miler MacGrath, the scoundrel of Cashel, who lived to be 100 years old.  We can only imagine how humbled the average worshiper must have felt when approaching the great building in the 1300s

We ended the day's travels in the town of Kilkenny where there is yet another imposing castle along with a love of the sport of hurling.  

We finished the night having another session with the Folk Legacy Trio and a roomful of perfectly harmonizing amateurs.  I moved my lips to the tunes that I knew, but did my best not to let a sound escape from me.

Carroll

Rick and Jerry

Trad music after the FLT

Cork, Ireland: Jamison Distillery

Our tour headed to the Jamison Distillery in Midleton,  Ireland.  It was a good tour and I'm starting to know more and more about the distilling of whiskey.  At the end of the tour we had a comparison tasting of Irish Whiskey, peated Scotch and American bourbon.  I enjoyed this tour as did, I believe,  the rest of the FLTT.  

The mash still

Tripple distilled

Tasting of the different whiskeys

Along the way we saw a few other sites

A monument to the Choctaw Nation who sent money

 for food to Ireland during the famine in 1846

A borrowed picture of the monument at night

Killarney, Ireland: Celtic Crystal: Cliffs of Moher

 Today was spent mostly moving from Galway to Killarney.  Along the way we passed more bogs, quaint villages, some jaw-dropping seaside scenery and a crystal manufacturer.  Our first stop was at the Celtic Crystal Factory just outside of Galway.  Here we saw examples of hand crafted crystal.  I learned that the raw materials for the crystal glass is silicon (I knew that) plus sodium carbonate and lead oxide, who knew?  We watched one of the most humble men that I have ever met hand cut artistic designs into a glass bowl.  I was surprised at the speed at which he did his work.

Sean, our craftsman

Red tint comes from a coating of silica and the element gold

Green tint comes from coating of silica and the element nickel

Blue tint comes from coating of silica and the element cobalt

Yellow tint comes from a coating of silica and the organic molecule amber

After the crystal cutting demonstration we moved down the coast, southward, to the Cliffs of Moher.  This is a stretch of about five miles along the Atlantic coast with towering sea cliffs.  Sandy and I walked to the top of the cliffs.  My breath was taken away, both by the magnificent view and by the fact the wind velocity was so high that the Boolean pressure literally squeezed the air out of my lungs.  In the past the Irish let natural selection act as the determinant of how close one could get to the cliffs edge, now it is well protected with a stone and earth wall.

 Throughout the day we passed through small towns and green countryside

Sandy found a treasure trove of Buckeyes in Adare, Ireland

We checked into the Great Southern Hotel in Killarney where we had yet another great meal after which some of us went out to Murphy's for some more Trad.

Fellow travelers Tom and Pat

Us travelers plus Rick Dougherty

The trad group at the Pub

Our group of music appreciators