After a day of rest I found myself more or less back in action. Still a little sore from the back and forth, in and around walking involved with my trip to cemetery - but still, mostly mobile. I once again missed breakfast, but powered by some cookies I bought from the grocery store the day before (and washing it down with some orange soda I store on the ledge outside my window to keep cool) I walked the great distance of half a block to Dublin City Gallery (aka The Hugh Lane after it's founder and primary contributor) which houses a pretty nice collection of contemporary and modern artists. I'm no art critic or historian so my take on the museum is just as a guy who likes pretty pictures. The museum, or more likely the collection left to the museum by it's patron Hugh Lane, seems to heavily favor landscape artists. It has a nice collection of landscapes by John Constable, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and Irish landscape artist Nathaniel Hone. The museum also has a small, but very nice collection of well known pieces from Degas, Monet, Manet, Pissarro, and Renoir. Not surprisingly, the bulk of the visible collection deals with artists with ties to Ireland and especially Dublin including a sizable gifted collection by modern Dublin artist Sean Scully, and a meticulously recreated installation of Francis Bacon's studio. The Francis Bacon studio is an odd thing to spend such a large amount of gallery real estate as the museum does. Backed by documentary and photographic evidence, the studio is a faithful recreation of the Dublin-born artist's incredibly messy studio using his actual, incredible mess. They have a ridiculous catalog of everything that was in his studio when he passed away, presenting select items (like what was on his bookshelf) as an exhibit of their won. Being only passingly familiar with the artist, and not even remotely a fan of his work, it just seemed odd. Overall the museum is full of great Irish works, some art superstars that get regularly loaned to the National Gallery of London, and a weird fascination with Francis Bacon.
I spent about two hours walking around the museum, which was actually longer than I expected and quite a bargain at the price of $Free, but I had missed breakfast and was now quite famished. I had initially planned on eating at the restaurant in the basement of the Dublin Writers Museum next to the art museum but I had missed their lunch hours. It turns out I was probably better off as it was a lot more upscale than I realized - at least according to it's menu. Instead I ate at the mostly satisfactory cafe in the basement of the Dublin City Gallery. I had a sandwich that was fine, a soup that was a little bland but not bad, and a decent cup of tea at a price that wasn't terrible considering it's a museum cafe. Having stuffed food in my face I debated about checking out the Writers Museum next door or making to 30-45 minute walk south to the Guinness Storehouse. It had been raining steadily but relatively lightly since sometime around midnight, and since I figured I survived the downpour in the cemetery I went for the beer. The walk wasn't bad, a little chillier than I realized, and in less than an hour I was at the Guinness Storehouse to take the tour. I want to preface this by saying that I wasn't disappointed that I took the tour. However, the tour was not quite what I was expecting.
The tour is a self-paced walk through what used to be the fermentation plant for the brewery. Although full of pipes and other remnants of its industrial past, there's absolutely nothing made in the Storehouse anymore. Instead, it's a 7-story exhibit that briefly goes through the ingredients, brewing process, history of founder Arthur Guinness, and then honestly the rest is pretty much propaganda. There is a tasting exhibit where you get an adorable tiny pint glass (that you later have to give back...I was tempted....sorely tempted) and a quick lesson on what you should be tasting when you drink Guinness, and an interesting exhibit where staff teach you to pour a proper pint of Guinness that you can then take up to the 7th floor they call the Gravity Bar. If you don't like the responsibility of pouring your own, once at the Gravity Bar you can get a pint poured for you (whether you pour your own or get one upstairs, a pint is included in the price of admission) and take in what is probably one of the best views in Dublin. It's a circular, all-glass windowed bar and I happened to get there right at sunset. It was also incredibly crowded.I enjoyed my view and pint and then went back down to their pub-restaurant where I had another pint and a really good bowl of Guinness Stew. Oddly enough, the part that I probably found the most interesting was an old video made in 1954 (I think) that showed the process that their on-site coopers went through to make the wooden casks to store Guinness (wooden casks aren't part of their aging process so it's all metal kegs now). Their wooden casks were serious works of craftsmanship.
Again, I don't want you to think I didn't enjoy the tour, but I really thought I would be seeing more giant copper monstrosities from their brewing past, maybe some cool old architecture mixed with elements of the modern brewery they've become, and a more guided experience. I was expecting something more along the lines of what I got when I went to the Budweiser brewery in St. Louis, which I hate to compare because I fucking hate their beer. What I got was a high tech, high production value, highly merchandised tourist attraction. Still...there was beer, and it was still enjoyable. Just be warned.
When I finished my stew, caved in to the allure of souvenir knick-knacks (almost entirely for other people) and had an interesting conversation with a lady from Vancouver Island while waiting in line, I left the Storehouse and headed home. It was dark but the streets were still pretty busy so I strolled on down the street, taking a route home that took me through the Temple Bar district. Temple Bar is the touristy, happening nightlife side of Dublin. Supposedly the area is named after Sir William Temple (a Trinity College provost), but it's also widely believed to simply be named after the Temple Bar area in London. There is an Irish word "craic" (pronounced and sometimes spelled like crack). It's used to identify fun, entertainment, where the party is. To quote some random college kid on a tourism site, "Temple Bar has the best craic in town." Had I heard that out loud, I would have assumed the area was full of drug dealers...it may be. Anyways, even on a Thursday night at 7:30PM the Temple Bar area is bustling with young college kids (drinking age is 18) and tourists taking selfies in front of the Auld Dubliner Pub. I'm kind of tempted to go back tomorrow night just to see how busy it gets, though I've been warned twice that the price of food and drink there is astronomical. We'll have to wait and see what I decide. Right now I need to look up rental cars - I'm planning a brief blitz out of Dublin.
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