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Wednesday was all Dublin, and a true Irish drinking
day.
We started out the day with a coach tour of the Georgian section
of the city, on our way to Dublin castle, where many of the official
state functions take place
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Dublin castle, courtyard |
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Dublin castle, courtyard |
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Dublin castle, reception room
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The second stop on the Dublin tour was the Guinness
Hopstore, located in St. James Gate, the center and the oldest
part of the oldest part of Dublin.
After a brief introduction, we headed straight to the top floor
for our free taste in the pub. It was around 11:00 am, so we proved
that Guinness is not just for breakfast anymore.
The pub sits on the top floor of the visitors' center and features
a circular bar totally surrounded with glass walls, providing a
great view of the entire city of Dublin.
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Dublin, from the Guinness pub
overlook
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A shot-and-a-beer is the typical order, but on this day it was
a beer-and-a-shot as we left Guinness, and moved on to the Old Jameson
Distillery.
Along the way, our tour guide pointed out a few of Dublin's endless
supply of vistor attractions.
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Dublin cathedral |
Typical side street in Dublin |
Castle tower |
| First at the Old
Jameson Distillery, we learned the history of Irish whiskey, along
with the finer points of making this "water of life," as
the Irish call their whiskey. |
Entry to the Jameson Distillery
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| The educational portion of the tour
was followed by a formal whiskey tasting by some reluctant volunteers
from our tour group. |
Our whiskey tasters -- Dottie Janson, George Lehocky
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| Amazingly, all our tasters decided
that Irish whiskey is far superior to either Scotch or Bourbon, and
that Jameson is superior among all of the Irish whiskeys tasted. |
George Gantzer and Susan Sylvester |
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After Guinness and Jameson, the morning's activities proved to
be a challenge for everyone, not just the tasters.
In this photo, David Kent struggles to remember his own name for
the raffle card, while Mike Reilly (a bit confused about the date
and place) anxiously awaits the 2nd-half kickoff of the Elder v.
X High play-off game.
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Mike and David, struggling at Jameson's |
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Finished with the official tour "activities" Tommy played
a joke on us and kicked us off the bus in the middle of downtown
Dublin, challenging us to find our own way back to the hotel. (He
actually offered to take us back, but most folks chose to stay and
spend the afternoon wandering around downtown.)
The group split up and went a number of directions. In addition
to lunch and "the shopping," some of the other popular
attractions were Trinity
College, the Book
of Kells, and the National
Gallery of Ireland.
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Late afternoon, the handball players regrouped at the hotel, packed
into a couple of taxis and headed back across town to
Croke Park.
There, we met up with Eugene Kennedy and
some of the local Dublin players and mixed it up some on the court.
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Skip, David and Mike are joined by Dublin's Eugene
Kennedy on the 20x40 |
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Very mixed up, as a matter of fact, as we
moved from 20x40 to 30x60 and back, never playing on the same court
with the same ball or the same partner twice in a row.
Eugene introduced us to the official 30x60
ball -- larger, softer and bouncier than the "hardball"
used on the smaller courts. Generally, play is centered around the
larger courts in the summer, with winter competition geared toward
the smaller, "international" 20x40 courts.
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Ralph Weil and Roy Hennig, dwarfed by the 30 x 60
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And after playing for a couple of hours, we hit the pub that's
part of the Croke Park Handball Club and talked a lot of politics,
handball and listened to a lot of handball stories. Quite an amenity.
It was a great time meeting and playing with the Irish handballers
from Dublin.
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David Kent teams up with the Irish on the 30 x 60
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After those pints, we headed out to spend the rest of the evening
in the Temple
Bar district, where there's always lots of Irish music and lots
of Irish dancing -- but no food after 9:00 pm.
There were a lot of hungry and exhausted players by the end of
the night.
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George Lehocky and Ralph Weil v. Vince Caruso and
one of the younger Irish players
on the 20x40 exhibition court |
