Thursday, June 9, 2011

Cooley Whiskey

Our last full day in Ireland began with a beautiful, chilly sunrise on the Cooley Peninsula.


Truth be told, I was cuddled up in bed while Austin ventured out into the cold for this photograph.

That morning, we had another fantastic breakfast.  I had crepes, and Austin had the same 'ole Irish breakfast.  (Apparently he never tires of sausage, bacon, eggs and toast.)  After eating, we packed up our bags and set out for the Cooley Whiskey Distillery.

I love me some whiskey!  After our own special tour of the distillery, the manager sent us down to Martin's pub on the end of the street for some samples.

 
We spent a couple of hours sipping whiskey, snacking on Irish cheese, and chatting with the bartender.  It was one of my favorite activities of the entire trip!

My favorite whiskey was the Connemara.  We didn't purchase it, though - we got a bottle of the Killbegan and a sampler pack of all the Cooley Whiskeys for my parents.  I'm hoping to find a bottle of Connemara sometime to try it again.  The flavor was very unique to Ireland, as it is a peated single malt whiskey.

After our whiskey-tasting fun, we stopped by the Proleek Dolmen, another portal tomb.


We enjoyed walking around and seeing the sights, amazed at how such a historical artifact is hidden behind a hotel in the middle of nowhere.

Isn't it mind boggling to think of how they lifted that huge rock, weighing 40 tons, back in the 3000-2000 BC era, when there was no such thing as a crane?



After lunch, we drove towards Dublin.  We stayed at Rathview House, a cute B&B just minutes from the Dublin airport.  This was key to our selection of a hotel, as we had to be at the airport extremely early for our flights.  (Of course, the flight was delayed and we ended up being there an extra 5 hours early, but anywhoo...gotta love international flights)

We walked around Swords for a while, and discovered one last castle to admire.



 We walked around town before deciding on where we would eat dinner, and finally selected Masterson's Steakhouse.  We shared a delicious appetizer, sweet beef stirfry.  For our entrees, we both had the sea bass fillet fried in lemon butter and drizzled with a citrus Beurre Blanc.

For dessert, we had a hot fudge chocolate cake.  And when we got back to our room, our hostess served us a glass of white wine.  Perfection.  Sweet dreams!


The next day we arrived at the airport at 7 am for a hellacious 24-hours of airports, planes, and delayed flights.  We were happy to be home.

1 comment:

  1. You are such a badass drinking all that whiskey! I've always imagined myself to be a whiskey drinker but have never been able to stomach it. Thanks for sharing all of your awesome pictures with us : )

    ReplyDelete