3/16 Guinness

Guinness doesn’t have a tour, they have the “Guinness Experience”. That’s a good way to put it. It’s crazy busy - most people have a 2-3 hour wait to buy entrance tickets. Fortunately we had vouchers so we could get right in. Their entrance level has lots and lots of stuff to see, and there are 6 floors above that. The entrance level was packed with people. Servers and stilt walkers wandered through the very loud and very happy crowd. 

We learned that Mr Guinness leased his land for 9,000 years at 45 pounds a year, which was pretty shrewd of him. He and his wife had 22 children, 10 of which survived to adulthood.

We went through a lot of displays that were very interesting and looked wonderful but didn't tell me anything that stuck with me. 

One floor had sample room with a speaker talking about how to drink Guinness. 

The 4th floor was my favorite - it was filled with references to the funny advertising campaigns of the past. 

Our trip included letting us “pull a pint” on the fourth floor. There’s a specific way to do it. According to Brendan, you start with a clean dry warm glass. If you can find a harp glass with a fob in the bottom, that’s the best kind. Pull the tab back 3 seconds (which puts more gas in it) then forward to fill it 3/4. Never let the spigot touch the glass and always hold the glass at a 45 degree angle. Wait 60 seconds to let it settle (2 minutes would be better but most people don’t wait that long). Then fill it the rest of the way, holding the glass straight up with no angle, to put on a “Bishop’s collar” on it. Guinness did it the same way except for the 3 second back-pull. Randy decided to follow the instructor's way. 

It settled perfectly. 

And it tasted just fine. 

From there we paused at the 5th floor and didn't find anything interesting so we went on to the 6th floor, the room with the 360 degree view. And yes, the walls are glass and you can see for miles. 

But it wasn't much fun because someone had just tried to open an outside door and the high-pitched, very loud alarm was going off. And people were packed in here shoulder to shoulder. So we didn't stay long. 

So we took the stairs down to the bottom level and went to the gift shop, where we found a few things we couldn't live without. While we were in line a group of musicians played their way through the store. Guinness likes to keep things moving!

Right before we left, Erin and I got a shamrock painted on our cheek. Why not?

When we left there was still a big crowd waiting to get in. Man, Guinness has a sweet deal going on here! I'm glad it was part of our trip because I wouldn't want to wait in that line, but I wouldn't want to miss this, either.