Ireland again - Day 3: Howth and Guiness Storehouse

Day three commenced with:

• Rudy taking an early cab to Bull Island for a round of golf at the Royal Dublin Golf Club
• Sabrina going to the conference at Trinity College
• The rest of us taking a scenic drive around Howth Head

As usual, getting out of the city center was tricky, but we eventually found our way to the road along the coast just north of Dublin. While driving around the peninsula, we randomly detoured down a side road that dead-ended at the entrance to a walking path.

A passing (local?) woman told us that there was a lighthouse somewhere out there, and we could walk as little or as far as we liked, so we started down the path.

It was quite a reasonable trail, at first, and offered some great views of the "dangerous cliffs" and lighthouse.

Sometimes the trail was a foliage-lined tunnel, and sometimes it was bordered by well-trimmed hedges or dense ferns, but in a few points it was lined with unkempt thorny bushes and flowering hedges filled with bees. My fellow explorers were not big fans of this, but were persuaded with repeated suggestions of "let's just see what's around the next bend" to continue for about a half mile.

Once we reached a spot with a good view of the lighthouse, it became apparent that it was still quite far away. I conceded defeat, and we hiked back to the car.

We continued our circumnavigation of Howth Head, stopping in the village of Howth itself for a coffee and a stroll on the pier.

Next up, a trip to the golf course to pick up Rudy, on the way back towards Dublin. Access to the island is via a single-lane, wooden bridge. The guy in front of us got tired of waiting for the light to change, and just went for it on red. I figured maybe he knew something I didn't, so followed right behind him.

After picking up the golfer, we headed back into the city center to drop the car off at the car park and meet Sabrina for lunch. Getting back to the hotel was difficult as usual, even with a GPS.

While waiting for all of these photos to upload, I looked up some info on driving in Dublin/Ireland. Here are a few choice quotes that I enjoyed:

• Parking spaces are at a premium, the traffic is slower than in New York City and nearly all sights are within walking distance of each other anyway. There should be no reason to use a car in Dublin.
• Irish roads tend to be narrow. Adjust your perceptions of personal space. It's not "my side of the road" or "your side of the road." It's just "the road" — and it's shared as a cooperative adventure.
• The most dangerous creature on the road is the panicked American.

After lunch, we walked over to the Guinness Storehouse again, except this time we stayed for some tour action.

I wasn't planning to take many pictures, as I have dozens already (somewhere), but it turns out that it has completely changed since 2007. Most of the history parts of the self-guided tour are the same, actually, but I don't recall the "tasting experience" or the interactive displays from our last visit.

As the Gravity Bar on the top floor was closing a bit early on account of a "private event" (e.g., the people in town for the economics conference), we skipped a few floors and went right to the top.

Since the non-beer-enthusiasts amongst us didn't want their pints, Rudy and I were forced to split 5 pints between the two of us, shared 60/40.

On the way back down, we stopped to see several of the floors that we had skipped previously.

After spending several hours at the Guinness Storehouse, we walked back to the hotel to drop off our bags, and then had an excellent dinner at the Fade Street Social.