Hallo from the Netherlands! I was planning to attend a board game event for expats tonight, but it got postponed. It’s cold and snow-rainy here, so I’ve decided to snuggle up with a blanket and tea and enjoy my final night cat-sitting in Amsterdam. A fine excuse to start blogging about this adventure.
Quick Backstory
This past summer I begrudgingly gave up the Brooklyn apartment I’d lived in for eight years (long, unhappy story). I really liked that place, neighborhood, and the appeal it held for travelers; hosting visitors and planning events around their stay was one of the highlights of living there. It was also easy to find subletters when I wanted to travel, and I was sad to have to give it up.
So…what to do when you’re forced to move? Since I work remotely I decided not to get a new place. Instead, I moved my stuff to storage and decided to buy a cheap ticket to somewhere new. Aer Lingus had a Cyber Week sale, so I booked a 70-day, ~$500 roundtrip ticket to Amsterdam with stops in Ireland in both directions.* Let the journey begin!
*I’m comfortable buying cheap, non-refundable tickets thanks to travel benefits from my credit card. If you’re thinking of getting the Chase Sapphire Preferred, feel free to use my referral code. Thanks! https://www.referyourchasecard.com/6f/1W695AGEIA
First Stop: Guinness Storehouse
March 2nd, 2023: 9 AM
I exited the Dublin airport and was welcomed by a gray, rainy Ireland. “So much for a dry day” the bus driver sighed. The man selling bus tickets nodded in solidarity; they both seemed accustomed to this fate. I boarded the Dublin Express with my €12 roundtrip ticket and watched the rainy scenery as we rolled toward the city center. I got off at my stop and maneuvered around a surprising amount of dog poop as I made my way up sleepy streets with bare brick houses to my destination. I had an 8-hr layover and – a rare event – a precise plan on how to spend it.
It was easy to reach the Guinness Storehouse from the bus stop, and I enjoyed the cozy, historic ambience along the way. The Storehouse opens at 10 AM, and before leaving the airport I used the wifi to book a tour at 10:30. Upon arriving, I learned that I didn’t have to worry about being prompt; they hardly looked at the time on my ticket as I was ushered in for my self-guided tour.
The Guinness Storehouse is enormous. It took me an hour and a half to make my way through all the floors of exhibits and information before ending in the 7th floor “Gravity Bar” for a complementary pint of Guinness. But I’m getting ahead of myself; the tour is worth explaining too!
Tour Highlights
There is plenty of information online if you want to dive deep into the ins and outs of Guinness Beer, so I’ll stick to some highlights that stood out to me:
- A sign on the first floor: “Legend has it that the yeast used in Guinness is descended from the strain used by Arthur Guinness himself. We do know that since the early 19th century, some yeast from each brew has been transferred on to the next. This is to ensure consistency. The yeast for Guinness is only grown here at St. James’s Gate and is so valuable that a reserve supply is always kept locked in the Director’s Safe. If anything happened to the main supply, this precious source could replenish stock in just a few hours.”
- Arthur’s wife Olivia birthed 21 children! I don’t think any of them were twins either…
- Guinness produces eight brews a day, and each one is taste tested 23 times and analyzed by scientists 251 more times
- There is a whole exhibit about barrel-making. Most interesting was learning about “smellers,” coopers with good noses who would sniff out spoiled casks and send them back to the cooperage for reconditioning.
- Smellers often spent over 6 hours a day smelling casks. They might sniff ~3,500 casks per week, almost 100 per hour!
- In the 1920s, barley was excavated from King Tut’s tomb in Egypt and sent to St. James’s Gate for dating and analysis, since the brewery was at the forefront of barley research.
- There was so much information about the specifics of roasting barley. It’s a very precise process!
- There is a whole floor dedicated to Guinness advertisements. I think I semi-remember the fish on the bicycle ad from 1996, with the motto “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.”
- Towards the end of the tour there is a tasting exhibit. First, we entered a white room with four smoking pillars, each emitting a different smell present in Guinness beer. Next, everyone received a tiny sample of Guinness and was taken to a second room to learn how to sniff it and swirl it in our mouths to properly taste test.
After all the information, I sat in the Galaxy Bar with my complementary pint and enjoyed the view. The Galaxy Bar gives a great view of the Dublin skyline, including the green dome of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. I had my laptop with me so I opened it up to do a bit of work before catching the bus back to the airport. Now I can say I worked in the Guinness Storehouse. 😜
That’s all I saw of Dublin, since the trip to and from the airport is an hour each way. This was a great way to spend my layover. I don’t particularly care to see much more of the city; when I have my 10-day stopover on the way home in May I will focus more on southern Ireland.
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