More in 7 Days than in 7 Months!

 I am sorry I have been MIA for the last week. I have been off on yet another holiday! I would make a terrible travel blogger, because when I am off traveling I am too busy enjoying the act of traveling to stop and write about it right then and there. 

I saw more of Ireland last week than I have in the seven months we have been living here! The reason for this was my parents came to visit. Adam and I have sort of been holding off on seeing some of Ireland's major attractions with the knowledge that we had visitors arriving in the Fall. My Aunt and Uncle will be here next week, so more Irish travel lies ahead!

As for my parents' visit we spent a few days here in Cork and then four days on the road exploring the West Coast before heading east to Dublin for a day. 

Thought I would share a quick post with just a few highlights from the visit.  I may expand upon a few things in future posts, but for now hopefully this will give you an idea of what an amazing country Ireland is. 

 Here is what we managed to cover in 8 days:

1 Fort

3 Castles

2 Manor Houses

1 Brewery

1 Distillery

2 golf courses

3 Mountain Passes

28 hours of scenic driving

4000+ sheep

almost as many cows

2 National Parks

4 very different hotels (each with their charms)

60 pints of Guinness 

40 pints of Murphys

13 bottles of wine

1 birthday (Lynn's)

and 

7 Rainbows!

We visited historical sights:

Charles Fort in Kinsale

The Blarney Castle

Roger kissing the Blarney Stone

The Rock of Cashel

The Rock of Cashel

Rock of Cashel

Cahir Castle

Thatched cottages in Adare

The Kylemore Abbey in Connemara

toured breweries and distilleries,

The Jameson Distillery

Roger holding his diploma after becoming an "official" whiskey taster

The Guinness Storehouse

drank a few pints (OK many, many pints),

Enjoying a pint at Doheny & Nesbitts in Dublin

saw some of the most amazing scenery I've ever seen,

Killarney National Park

The Cliffs of Moher

The Cliffs of Moher

The view along the Dingle Peninsula

Outside The Europe Hotel situated on the lake at Killarney National Park

Adam battling the high winds at Old Head golf course in Kinsale.

made some new friends,

experienced the ups and downs of the crazy Irish weather,

Winds were gusting up to 60 mph the day Adam and Roger teed up at Old Head!

stayed in several amazing hotels,

The Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin

Exterior of The Shelbourne Hotel

The crazy pink room in The G Hotel in Galway.

The G Hotel lobby

Anyone else a little Dizzy?!

The Europe Hotel in Killarney

The Europe Hotel

The Europe Hotel

Adare Manor Hotel

Roger enjoying his tea by the fireside at the Adare Manor Hotel.

enjoyed delicious food:

Adam made this amazing chocolate, coconut, and almond  delight from scratch in honor honour of Lynn's birthday!

and overall had a wonderful time!

Killarney National Park

Thank you Mom and Dad for coming to spend time with us, and treating us to a wonderful week exploring Ireland!

Hair of the Dog

UISCE BEATHA

Thought I'd follow up a post about beer with a post about whiskey!  You know in a sort of hair of the dog kind of way, it just makes sense.  A few weeks back Adam and I decided to check out what all the fuss over Irish whiskey was about.  When in Rome Ireland!  The word whiskey is an Anglicization of the ancient Gaelic term “uisce beatha” which translates as “water of life”.

 The Jameson Experience is just down the road from Cork in the town of Middleton. The tour unfortunately does not take you into their current modern production facilities, but I think what we did see might just have been better.  The tour takes you through the history of John Jameson and how his whiskey empire came to be.  It is simply amazing that something that began in 1780 is still going strong!  Even though we were not able to see the making of whiskey in action we received an informative tour about the distilling process. I really enjoyed walking through the old buildings used to store the barley, and seeing the huge copper pot stills, and water wheel once used to power the entire factory.  Jameson actually has a cool little virtual tour you can check out here if you would like to see where we were.

Notice the barley on the wheel?

This is inside the brew house, with huge whiskey barrels!

Copper Pot Still

Sexy Adam!

Another interesting part of the tour was seeing the cask in different stages of aging.  The whiskey gains most of it's color and develops different flavors from the tannins in the wood.  It's also amazing how much of the whiskey evaporates during the aging, talk about profit loss! Although I guess the longer the whiskey is aged the higher price it commands, so maybe it's not profit loss after all!

Whiskey aging through the years, notice the change in color and the evaporation?

My favorite part of the tour - the end.  Not because it was over, but because the final stop on the tour is in the tasting room!  Everyone receives a glass of the original Jameson served however they like, a variety of mixers, straight up, or on the rocks!  The guide also selected 3 women and 3 men to perform their own taste comparison.  Guess who volunteered!?  So Adam and I received three different shots of whiskey, a Scotch one you'll know as Johnny Walker, an American favorite Jack Daniels, and of course the Jameson.  I don't know much about whiskey, so I was shocked to find there was such a difference between all three!

For me it was a toss up between the Scotch and Irish.  Not everyone likes the smoky, peaty flavors in a Scotch whiskey, but I happen to find it very appealing.  However, the Jameson was lovely, almost sweet, and very smooth.  Triple distilling makes all the difference there!

In the end we received a fancy certificate proclaiming us to be official whiskey tasters!  We may be official now, and The Jameson Experience was indeed a fun experience, but beer still reigns supreme in the Croissant household! Cheers!