Ireland – ourhoppytravels

Last weekend, we drove up to Skerries, a seaside town north of Dublin city. In about an hour, we made it to the centre of the small town. Easily accessible by Dublin bus and the Irish rail, Skerries is part of the Dublin county and makes for a great city break.

Skerries is especially popular for its historic tower mills that date back several hundred years. The Skerries mill complex includes 2 tower mills or windmills and a water mill.

The mills can be visited through a guided tour only and unfortunately the last tour was already underway when we got to the mills. And so, we just walked around the mill complex admiring the mills from a distance.

The one above is the four sail windmill and is the older of the two. It’s also known as The Small Windmill while the one below is called The Great Windmill. The taller one below is said to be more efficient considering its five sails.

It was good weather the day we were visiting – blue skies showing no trace of rain. Perfect weather to walk the little coast of Skerries.

We were soon peckish and decided to head over to this little cafe Goat in The Boat for some snacks and coffee. Funny little folk tale of St. Patrick and his visit to Skerries can be found on one of the cafe’s walls.

Skerries is filled with cute little cafes.

Storm in a Teacup is very close to the beach, perfect place to take away some icecream and a cuppa to enjoy by the beautiful Irish sea.

IMG_0407 (2) — From the Skerries harbor, you can see a faint outline of the Mourne Mountains in the distance

We walked along the rocky shore picking shells and watching little hermit crabs scurrying thru tidepools.

As the sun went down, it started to get nippy and we made our way back to the car park.

Right behind the car park is one of the two Martello Towers in Skerries. You’ll find plenty of such towers along the Irish coastline. These small defensive forts were built during the French revolution. Although primarily functioning as a watch-house, these towers were also homes to the guards and their families.

Alhough we spent only a few hours in Skerries and found Howth much more fascinating, it was nevertheless a lovely evening spent in good company.

Whoever said “Money can’t buy Happiness” definitely wasn’t a craft beer enthusiast!

It is soon going to be 2 months since we moved to Ireland and in this short while, we have explored a great variety of outstanding craft beers from this little country! It has definitely been the best bang for our buck and we are still floating in a little cloud of joy.

What continues to amaze us the most is just how EASY it is to get good craft beer around here. There are a myriad of pubs that serve craft beer, some that serve only craft beer with no macro beers at all! Having moved from a little town in Germany, where we were starved for craft beer, Dublin has been pure bliss!

We no longer need to go scouring the little corners of the country we live in for a good pint of craft beer but walk less than a 100 metres to our friendly, neighborhood supermarket to get some of Ireland’s top-notch craft beers. And, better yet, we’ve also got an off licence store (or liquor store) that stocks the latest and greatest of craft beers from not only Ireland but all around the world. So, yeah, we are definitely in a happy place! 🙂

So far, we have tried over 70 beers from a number of breweries around Ireland (yeah, we know – more beers than the number of days we’ve been here! But hey, haven’t you heard – A beer or two a day can keep a slew of health conditions at bay!)

And, yet, we have barely scratched the surface! There is a lot more beer to be explored and enjoyed. The local breweries keep releasing limited edition small batch beers. New breweries as well seem to keep springing up ever so often. So, it seems like there’s always going to be new stuff – on tap and by bottle.

Through bold experimentation and radical flavors, the craft breweries of Ireland have carved out a prominent place for themselves in the craft beer revolution map. Ireland was already a renowned beer nation having given the world one of the greatest beers of all time – the Guinness. But, now, the country is garnering a reputation for itself among the top craft beer nations, and gaining international recognition for its impressive assortment of craft beers.

And, surely enough, there seems to be a large community of craft beer enthusiasts who not only indulge in all this amazing beer but also share their experiences with the community actively via Twitter, Instagram, podcasts and beer blogs. We had the absolute pleasure of meeting a few of these guys over the last few weeks – friendly folks who are hugely passionate about their beer – they gave us a warm welcome and lots of helpful recommendations! We have also been getting a whole bunch of recommendations from folks over Instagram. It’s been simply marvelous to connect with all these wonderful, beer-loving folks!

All in all, we are absolutely thrilled to be here in Ireland, in the midst of all this fantastic craft beer culture! We are happy to be spoilt for choice here and we look forward to making the most of it and sharing our experiences. Sláinte! 🍻