Ireland - Beer & Spirits

Aside from its beautiful countryside, Ireland may be best known for its beer and spirits, as well as the festivities that surround them. We were fortunate enough to be in Dublin two weeks ago for St. Patrick's Day (simply known as Paddy's amongst the locals).

Our day started with some pina colada's courtesy of Lindsay (a decidedly un-Irish start to the day) and we then took to the streets with the gang (Matt, Lindsay, Cam, Olivia - photo at top) to watch a brief part of the parade (above), which was somewhat low-budget and reminiscent of Toronto's Santa Clause Parade, although some locals take it seriously enough to line the parade route in the wee hours of the morning or to scale various street furniture to cop a great view (below).

We then headed to some local pubs for the rest of the day, to celebrate in a more traditional fashion, with pints of Guinness and some Irish folk music. While the streets were packed with tourists, we managed to find a great local crowd packed with several local church choirs that sang ballads throughout the afternoon.

Kristi and I also toured the Guinness Brewery in Dublin, which was much more interesting than we expected, given the tens of millions of Euro that Guinness has put into their Visitors Center - definitely a must see tour with a very fresh pint at the end.

Also, as noted in previous posts, we toured the Old Jameson Whisky Distillery in Middleton (County Cork) and also popped in on the Old Bushmills Distillery near the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland (photos above and bel0w).


While there may still be one more Dublin post in the cards, photos are posted here for those interested.

Ireland Road Trip II - Northern Ireland

Following the success of our earlier road trip to Cork and Kerry, Kristi and I set out alone on a 3-day road trip to Northern Ireland, with the primary goal if seeing the Giant's Causeway along with the beautiful coast.

Our first stop was Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland and a city that really surprised us with its charm and new modern development. We were only in Belfast for 5 hours (not nearly enough time), but we were able to walk around a lot of the downtown (Kristi is pictured above in front of city hall) and we also took a black cab tour of the Protestant and Catholic neighbourhoods, to learn more about the political situation.



The neighbourhoods of Belfast are known for their murals, which were often painted in memory of various events or people. Our guide was very knowledgeable and helped walk us through The Troubles. He also gave us a modern day perspective and it does seem like the situation has improved significantly over the past decade, in large part due to the economic prosperity in the area; however, the current recession could incite additional unrest (which has started already - click here).


We left Belfast on Monday evening and made it to Portrush, a town on the Northern coast, very close to the Giants Causeway. The next morning, we paid a quick visit to the ruins of Dunluce Castle and then made our way to the Causeway, which is an incredible natural phenomenon which must be seen to believed. The Causeway also comes with a bit of folklore, the legend of Finn McCool. Although the weather was quite blustery, we hiked around the area before returning to our car to continue the beautiful drive around the coast of Country Antrim.


The drive was incredibly scenic and we really loved seeing the countryside. We spent the night just outside of Belfast and then had a relaxing day meandering around the countryside, eventually making our way back to Dublin on Wednesday evening.

For those interested, additional photos of our road trip are available here.

Ireland Road Trip I - Cork & Kerry

After arriving in Dublin on March 11th, we got settled into our friends’ Cam and Liv’s place, had a great dinner with the group (including our good friend Matt), and then headed out with Cam & Liv on a weekend road trip to explore Southwestern Ireland.


Our first stop brought us to one of Ireland’s best foodie towns, Kinsale. Located on Ireland’s southern coast, about 4 hours from Dublin, Kinsale was a lovely little town. We checked into a small lodge and then headed out for dinner at a highly recommended local pub/restaurant, Jim Edwards. The meal started with Jon and Cam ordering a much needed pint of Guinness, while Liv and Kristi enjoyed a Bulmer’s Light (a favourite Irish Cider). We then all had a fabulous meal of delicious, locally caught fish.


On day two, we enjoyed the Irish Breakfast at our lodge, which provided a good base for our first stop, the Jameson Distillery, in Middleton. We learned the art and science behind the famous whiskey, and then had the pleasure of sampling some of the output. We also had the opportunity to compare Jameson’s to the smokier Scottish Scotch and the sweeter American Bourbon. Given the setting of the tasting and the sales pitch by our tour guide, we both preferred the Jameson’s!


Our next stop was the Blarney Castle. Originally dating back to the1200’s, the castle was rebuilt by Cormac MacCarthy, the King of Munster in the 1400‘s. Today, the castle is most famous for the Blarney Stone, which lies at the top of the castle. Legend has it that those who kiss the Blarney stone will be granted the gift of gab (eloquence), and this legend seems to attract an awful lot of tourists. Kissing the stone involves lying on your back and hanging your head over the edge of the castle (while being held onto by a very old Irishman, who supposedly ensures your safety). All four of us went through the motions of kissing / pretending to kiss the stone (for photograph purposes). Consensus among the four of us has it, that only Jon was granted the gift of gab - apparently it does matter if your lips touch the stone.

Day two of the road trip ended in Killarney, where we enjoyed a dinner of Irish Stew and a restful night.


On day three, we rose early, to again enjoy a delicious Irish Breakfast, which provided fuel for our hike around Killarney National Park. After our walk, we headed out to enjoy the scenic drive around the Ring of Kerry (above).


In addition to enjoying the beautiful scenery, one of the highlights included an unplanned detour following signs marked “Farmhouse Cheese”. We were rewarded for our efforts when we arrived at a private home and were led into a Dutchman’s “cheese room”. The gouda style cheese on offer was delicious, and we walked off with a piece of both garlic gouda and the cumin gouda.

The trip ended with a marathon drive home and a great sleep back in Dublin.

For those interested in viewing more photos of this roadtrip (including photos of us kissing the Blarney Stone), click here.

San Sebastian

Following our weekend in Bilbao, we took the bus to San Sebastian, an incredible seaside city and the foodie capital of Europe. Between the incredible picturesque setting, the friendliness of the local residents and the wonderful food, we fell in love with San Sebastian and it may perhaps be our favourite stop so far on the trip.


Nestled into the Bay of Biscay on the Atlantic Ocean, the city is home to some beautiful urban beaches as well as great surf spots.


The harbor of San Sebastian is also home to a great series of sculptures by local Basque sculpture Edouardo Chllida, called "Comb of the Wind" (above and at top of blog post). These weathered steel sculptures are built into the rocks at the end of the harbour and are truly captivating when the waves crash into them, adding a variety of experiences to the art. We ended up taking a lot of photos of these sculptures, which are available here.


Building upon the great pintxos of Bilbao, San Sebastian is truly a food mecca and every little bar / restaurant takes their food extremely seriously . The photo above depicts two of our favourites that (skewered grilled shrimp and a fried crepe containing asparagus, mushrooms and langoustines) that cost about 3 Euro each and would have been at home as starters on any Michelin-starred restaurant. After spending several days of eating pintxos like these (including foie gras in every form known to man), we were sad to leave and can only hope that the tapas/pintxo culture makes its way to North America beyond the "small plates" craze. The big difference between what exists in Spain vs North America is the casualness of these bars - locals just drop in for a glass of wine (usually priced at 2 Euro or less) and a couple of pintxos, before continuing on to the next bar. There is often no menu and certainly no formality. There are also often few/no chairs in the bar and young and old intermingle with no pretension. Definitely a great way to dine.


With this post, I believe that we are finally caught up through Spain. (although we still may have 1-2 belated Barcelona posts over the next week). We have been in Dublin for the past week (including St. Paddy's and will be posting some photos soon!.

Cheers

Bilbao

Catching up on past events, from March 5-8th we were in Bilbao with Carlotta. While our primary draw to the city was the Guggenheim, we fell in love with the Basque culture as well as the incredible culinary scene across Basque Country.

The Guggenheim Bilbao was designed by Frank Gehry and first opened in 1997. While we initially were somewhat suspicious of what to expect, we both were in awe of the building. Gehry has done a great job of creating a curvaceous, flowing structure that interacts with the city around it, despite the fact that the materials used for the building (primarily glass and titanium) do not reflect the surrounding materials. It's hard to really capture the Guggenheim Bilbao in a photograph and we spent our first 30 minutes walking around the outside of the museum before entering.

The Guggenheim Bilbao has a small permanent collection, which largely consists of some large sculptures / installations by (among others), Richard Serra and Jeff Koons (above). The majority of the space at the Guggenheim Bilbao is devoted to revolving exhibitions. Fortunately/unfortunately, we visited when the Museum was featuring an exhibition on Takashi Murakami, who is loosely termed an artist and is better described as a businessman or a commercial designer. Murakami is well known for the world of characters he designed, as well as for his collaboration with Louis Vuitton on several very successful lines of handbags. It was definitely interesting to see the Murakami exhibit and learn more about his style and history; however, it was also a bit disappointing that there wasn't something more interesting on display.

The other big highlight of Bilbao was the incredible food. The Basque region is famous for its Pintxos, small bite-sized tapas that are mainly served cold on pieces of bread. The photo above is the typical scene that greets you in any Basque bar. It is always a tough choice what to order and while at first it is strange to see everything on display, after eating at a few Pintxo bars, you get used to it quickly.

These three delicious pintxos include a grilled mushroom (far right), a round of goat cheese with strawberry compote (left) and a piece of foie gras between two home-made potato chips (back). Needless to say, all three were delicious).

We would definitely recommend a visit to Bilbao; however, our favourite part of Basque Country was San Sebastian, which we visited immediately following Bilbao (post to come). Additional photos from Bilbao are available here.

Barcelona - Gaudi

One of the unique features of Barcelona is incredible blend of architectural styles, especially the unique Modernist buildings, designed by Antoni Gaudi and his peers/followers.


Gaudi’s most famous building is the incredible Sagrada Familia church which is still under construction over 100 years after being started. We were also able to enjoy a great picnic in Park Guell, an incredible urban park that overlooks the city and feels like being inside of a fairy tale, and we toured Casa Mila (the two photos above), a very unique apartment building with a great exhibit devoted to all of Gaudi’s work. The building’s nickname is La Padrera (the Quarry), because it looks like a stone quarry. The roof of La Padrera is one of the building's incredible features, as all of the various chimney's and other items on the roof of an apartment building, which generally are ugly and create clutter), are topped with unique sculptures turning something ugly into something beautiful.

It is truly incredible to see all of Gaudi’s work in person because the Modernist style is so unique and really captivated both of us. The organic forms often seem to defy gravity and come across as natural as opposed to man-made.


Barcelona has many other non-Gaudi Modernist buildings and we loved visiting Mercat de Santa Caterina and the Palau de la Musica Catalana (photo above), an incrediblly unique concert hall where we enjoyed a great pops concert.

Granada

The post below is actually about our weekend in Granada from Feb 20 - 22. Sorry for the lag and we will try to bring things up-to-date over the next little while.

Following our farmstay, Kristi and I traveled to Granada to meet Carlotta (a good friend and bridesmaid who is currently living in Barcelona) and also to tour the Alhambra. While Kristi and I did not know very much about Spain’s Moorish history prior to the trip, 3 weeks in Andalusia brought us up to speed. Instead of going into the details in the blog, I would direct you to this link which does a much better job of explaining the history (here is a helpful timeline as well). My capsule summary is that for the better part of 700 years, various parts of Spain were under Moorish control up until the “reconquest” by the Catholics. The Moors helped make Andalusia into one of the world’s leading cultural areas and a leader in art / architecture / literature. As a city, Granada still carries a very large Moorish influence and is home to a relatively large Muslim population and many middle-eastern restaurants.

Granada is home to what is widely viewed as one of the architectural wonders of the world, the Alhambra, a beautiful palace overlooking the city. It is hard for a photograph to accurately capture the beauty of the Alhambra and the surrounding gardens (known as the Generalife).


One of the most incredible features of the palace is the use of water, in the form of reflecting pools, running streams and fountains. It definitely creates an incredible sensory experience and the sound of the running water is extremely soothing as you tour the various buildings. Also, as noted from our visit to the Mezquita in Cordoba, we really like the Moorish architecture and the focus on geometric shapes and clean lines.


While the Alhambra has some incredibly ornate details, these details really serve to augment the buildings and are not obtrusive or overly ornamented.

Other than touring the Alhambra, we were also able to sample some great food in Granada and check out some of the bustling bars. Granada is known for providing free tapas with drinks and we ended up having to turn down some delicious looking food as we toured some of the cervecerias in town.

The three of us left Granada on Sunday night for Barcelona, Carlotta’s adopted hometown. Additional photos of Granada are available here.

Update

Sorry for not posting recently. We are having a great time in Spain and have been a bit truant on our blog posts; however, we have several posts in the works and hope to get them online in the next couple of days. We are currently in San Sebastian, but leaving tomorrow for Dublin (via Madrid). Lots of great stories and photos to share and apologies for the delay in getting them online.

In the meantime, we wanted to share two books that we are currently reading:

1. Ghosts of Spain - This is a great read about the recently history of Spain and does a great job explaining some aspects of Spanish culture. Kristi is midway through this book and Jon has already read it. Definitely recommended, especially for anyone visiting / living in Spain.

2. Suite Francaise - Jon is partway through this book and really enjoying it. It basically is a compilation of two novellas by a Jewish writer, written during WWII but never published due to her untimely death at Auschwitz. Recommended.