Saturday, Aug. 25: St. Patricks, Dublin Castle, Jamesons

Sorry this post is late. I've had a little lack of time. Nice problem to have!  I will try to get Sunday and Monday done after returning back to our apartment on Monday afternoon!

Saturday we headed off to the Tall Ships Festival again to see what was going on. Lots of people and lots of activities around the river. We caught a cab downtown to begin the 2-day Hop On, Hop Off Tour. We decided to go through the entire loop (about an hour) to see where we wanted to go on this first day. We chose to do St. Patrick's Cathedral first. Beautiful building, inside and out.

 

Then, breakfast at a local coffee shop. The coffee is very strong and offered in smaller cups. Cindy and I both agree it needs to be treated with cream and sugar!

Next up, Dublin Castle. Before the Tour started, we had a chance to look over the sand sculptures that were in the courtyard. One especially caught my eye.  It was based on the discovery of an equation by an Irish astronomer that is still used today in 3-D graphics creation. One side shows various 3-D figures while the other side shows the story of how the equation was first recorded.

Here's a picture from inside the Castle. Shown here is the huge ballroom where almost every head of state you can think of has dined.

One of things that happened at the Castle in historic times was to keep records of all family names in Ireland. I've told many of you that a DNA test I did through Ancestry.com showed my ancestry to be 100% British Isles; England, Scotland, and Ireland. So, we checked through the book of names and found Timerson, Freelove, and Schussler. We had been told that the extra "s" had been removed from Schusler when used in the U.S.  Here's one of the images we got.

Last, we decided to go to Jameson's to see how whiskey is made. The Tour is fine, but the highlight was being selected to "taste test" 3 different whiskeys; Jamison's from Ireland, Johnny Walker Black Label from Scotland, and Jack Daniel's from the U.S.  There is absolutely no comparsion. The Johnny Walker and Jack Daniel's were so harsh tasting with a taste that stayed around way too long. The Jameson's was, on the other hand, very smooth with no lingering, unpleasant aftertaste.  I, along with our 2 trip friends, were joined by Cindy for this picture. We were "awarded" certificates to show our tasting abilities. Cindy even said she enjoyed it! She had hers combined with cranberry juice.