Recently Sister-in-law came to stay. So like good little tour guides, we did the ttourist thing around Dublin. One of the things she really wanted to do was have a pint of the black stuff in the gravity bar at St James Gate. So off we trotted. Now, I have to say that I was not expecting much, I haven't heard many good things about the old storehouse, but I was pleasantly suprised. An adult ticket will set you back E15 (a little price-y but that's Dublin for you) but I ever the super organised bargin hunter, order our ticktets online the night before and secured a 10% discount. I would highly recommend doing this as you get to skip the long queue as well.
St James' Gate is a little out of the CBD, you can take a cab, but better to walk and see a bit more of Dublin. We were lucky as the weather was uncharacteristically warm. Once we had negotiated the lanes inside the outer walls and collected out tickets and passed into the worlds largest pint glass, which the bottom is a thick piece of glass with the 9,000 year lease signed by Arthur Guinness. The "tour" is self guided so you can take you time wandering through and talks about the history of the beer, how they make it, ingredients, advertising, how they transport it, etc. etc. Highlights were the Guinness and Chocolate muffin we stopped to snack on (delicious and dense) and the Guinness tasting room where a man walks you through how to taste all the ingredients and savor the flavour. It will sound strange, but you actually can taste the pure Wicklow Mountain water...But the main thing you want to get to is your free pint at the end. There are 3 bars where you can enjoy your pint, you can choose to either pull your own pint, have it in the cafe or take the stairs to the highest point in Dublin and sample what the city is famous for. I wanted to pull my own (there's a trick to it you see) but husband and sister-in-law didn't want to wait in line so onward and upward!
The Gravity bar was pretty awesome and it was such a clear day (a rarity here) that we could see all the way to Wicklow and the sea. I particularly enjoyed the quotes from famous novels and songs about Dublin on the glass. nice touch. I have to confess though...I don't like beer, in fact I'm not really a big drinker at all and neither is sister-in-law, so Husband has 3 pints to contend with. But alas, they proved too much for him and I ended up giving away my half finished pin to a group of German boys.
If you haven't been to the Guinness Storehouse, I would recommend it purely for the view at the gravity bar (which you can only get to after the tour). And if you're a lover of the Black Stuff, hang around some small Asian girl because chances are, you'll score another free pint!
Guinness Storehous
St James Gate
Dublin 8
http://www.guinness-storehouse.com/en/Index.aspx
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