Caramel, liquorice, and apples

It's all in a Westvleteren XII beer from Belgium. A Trappist beer, an ordinarily very difficult to get hold of (only from the monastery, have to ring and arrange pickup etc etc), this came from a box sold as part of a fundraising initiative.

It's very robust and warming at 10.2%., but not overpoweringly so. Very smooth, and only lightly carbonated. Dark, though, with a light touch of foam head.

Taste wise, well to me it's got caramel, liquorice, and apples. In a very nice balance. This is a robust beer for enjoyment at slightly below room temperature, over a longish time. Boxes sell for around €50 including a pair of lovely gold rimmed glasses, and 6 lovely bottles, from many good beer stockists.

Colourful Galway Shopfronts

Let's face it - by now, if you read this 'ere blog, you probably realise I like Galway - and for good reason. Good restaurants and pubs, nice walkable city centre, and a certain atmosphere that is unique to itself. Perhaps some of its charm is down to the colourful shopfronts that advertise the shops and cafés along the streets.

I hope these photographs do them some justice!



A very colourful (if not entirely open) shop on Shop St.



McCambridges shop - maybe emporium is the better word. This photo was taken on a Sunday morning when the shop was closed, but when it's open, you'll get the best of food, wine and beer in here. There's a lovely coffee counter in the centre for your caffeine hit (and a yummy coffee here too), and a fantastic deli counter for a delicious. They have a wonderful selection of drinks to wash it down with too, and it's the only place in Ireland I've seen marzipan from Niederegger in Lubeck (Germany).



The Dew Drop - I didn't drop in here, but loved this Guinness signage. There's a lot of the Irish language around Galway, it being so close to the Gaeltacht, which is great!



Wooden Heart is a lovely toyshop, selling all sorts of traditional style toys.



Tigh Neachtain - a strikingly painted pub and landmark in the heart of the city.

More photographs from Salthill, Galway

As promised, I've uploaded a few more photos from the walk along the prom in Salthill, Galway, last weekend (like a month ago now!) Hope you like em as much as I liked being there, and being able to take them.


It really is a refreshing place for a walk and the weather was just right - a little cold maybe, but some sunshine and no rain, but enough cloud for drama!



These small waves still made a big splash off the breakwater - I think this is a swimming pool or something, maybe someone can correct me?

This next shot is of an interesting sign - I've never seen another like it in my time!



Always good advice - it is situated on the diving board at the far end of the promenade.

No ice-cream today.



And the bucket shop was unfortunately closed, but has a fantastic window display!



I wonder how it goes in Black and White....



Great walk, thoroughly enjoyable. After Salthill we went back into town. Galway, and that long street running from Eyre Square down towards Spanish Arch in particular has some of the most beautiful shopfronts in the country. I took some snaps of those and will get cracking on them over the next few days.

Nice of you to visit, see you again!

Galway Bay - or, the Atlantic Ocean...

A view from Salthill. Further to my previous post, I have been hacking through the images I took from Salthill on Saturday. There was a nice wintry sun, and a pretty impressive breeze, but the sea was quite well behaved and calm! So here's a few I took and am reasonably happy with...









I thought I'd add the last one to Etsy for kicks...

More to come from Salthill, and a few in and around Galway city. It really is a very picturesque place, and you don't have to go far out of the lovely city to find the wilds of Connemara and the Atlantic Ocean.

Galway, instructions for a pleasing weekend.

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I've just spent a lovely weekend in Galway, courtesy of some living social deals. We had a stay in the Forster Court hotel, which was most impressive - a very welcoming hotel, with comfortable rooms and pleasant and attentive staff. The hotel's just off Eyre Square so is merely minutes' walk from the main heart of Galway city.

Arriving on Friday night after work we had a tasty meal in the hotel. Saturday then we made our way to Kenny's Bookshop in the Liosbaun retail park, where the famous bookshop has moved to. In all the times I've been to Galway since they moved from the city centre I've never been to the new location so I had it in mind this time. It's in an almost industrial unit - but there's a lovely almost untidy (no offence!) clutter to the seats, couches and stacks of books in amongst the tall shelves that makes it very conducive to browse. 

So that was an enjoyable hour or so - my wallet escaped almost unscathed, though I did purchase a book on a practice Martian landing in the Arctic which will I'm sure warrant a mention at a later time. 

Out to Salthill then for a walk along the prom - we parked by the diving boards and walked back down towards the centre of Salthill. Stopped for a "Strange Brew" in the Oslo bar before heading back up to kick the wall. Oslo is a great bar, with a fantastic selection of beers (some brewed themselves) and a beer hall towards the back - well worth a visit if you're out that direction.

Back to town then for a freshen up before a tasty pizza in Fat Freddy's (pizza bianco - pesto, pepperoni, potatoes and cheese on a yummy base) - oh, and if they have a crostini with pear, honey and goats cheese when you're there, do order and enjoy. After that a couple more beers in the Salt House.  This is a real cosy little place with an even better selection of beer (We went for the Bay Ale and a Metalman Alternator, both tasty) but perhaps not such a great selection of board games (as advertised on the website). Get in there early as it's quite small, not so many seats, and has a fantastic selection of beers and whiskeys. 

After another tasty breakfast and checkout (with gift of cookies and bread!) from the hotel, we wandered along the canal which sort of parallels the river Corrib. This was a part we've never seen and is a lovely route for a walk. 

Another lunch in the Front Door pub - a deceptively large pub, but with loads of nooks and crannies so it feels really snug. Great food in here too, and this place will be on our "must go again" list. I had a vegetarian quesadilla which was really tasty. I didn't miss the meat and there was lovely salsa on the nachos that came with it. M had a chicken caesar salad that had plenty of chicken and bacon and lots of flavour. 

There will be photographs, once I get a chance to download them and upload them! 

  

Bloom in the Park 2011

Today we took the train (early, 07:45!) to see Bloom in the Phoenix Park. Bloom's an annual festival/event organised by Bord Bia, to showcase (from what I saw today) the best of Irish food, drink, plants, wildlife and garden design. As well as the usual retail sales areas that you find at (and that probably pay for) these events everywhere, there's a garden show area with about 8-10 gardens competing for prizes; an Irish food area; an Irish micro/independent brewer/distillers area (yum); information on wildlife organisations and activities for kids - a well-rounded family day out I suppose, even if there's only yourself and herself.... :P

There was lots of relaxing things to do....



I took a few photos, needless to say. I should preface them by saying that either I was confused or the camera was, as many of these pics weren't exposed great....so what you see is a result of a harsher than usual cull.



My personal favourite was a garden on the theme of "Alice in Wonderland," which was built/formed/made from synthetic grass and some plants. Lovely and bright and colourful, perhaps I should have taken more photos here!



My next favourite was the Chinese Garden, which had dancing and music. We arrived just after the dancing though, and didn't hang around till the next one. Mostly because it didn't occur to us to.





And another very enjoyable area....



The Bloom Inn was great - half-pint glasses at €2.50 being very reasonable, and excellent beers from craft breweries around the country. I particularly enjoyed my first taste of Galway Hooker and also of Trouble Brewing's Ór (up Kildare!), both very very tasty beverages indeed. I must also beseech the guys in Dungarvan to brew more of their coffee and oatmeal stout for bottling! My first taste too of Metalman's beer (I had the Windjammer), White Gypsy's and of 8 Degrees, all very enjoyable.

May they all bottle and distribute widely. Or to Kildare at any rate.

There is of course plenty of food to peruse and purchase for soakage. Sorry, I mean, of course, enjoyment. Lots of nice meat providers (can think of 2 sausage stands, and one beef stand in particular), bakeries, jams, preserves, you name it, and many providing a sample or 2 to tempt you!



Not to mention you never know who you'll bump into (or see other people bumping into)



If you go, I hope you enjoy it and that the weather suits you. If you don't have time and remain curious, get thee to pix.ie and have a look at either my few pics, or the pictures of other photographers that have submitted their work!

Budget 2011

Well, yesterday was budget day here. Nobody likes budget days, and I think it's fair to say that this one was a toughie. Tax bands were dropped, social welfare payments cut, minimum wage cut, and a whole raft of other chops and changes were made to help shore up the state's coffers. I'm not an economist so I'm not gonna go into the whys and whats of it all, but I thought it might be useful to share with you a link to a calculator that might help you to understand how the changes will affect you. I had a look around and I found a few, but the one below was the most comprehensive. It deals with both private and public sector employees, while many of the other calculators only deal with private salaries.

http://www.taxcalc.eu

The Lost Booker prize

Apparently, they didn't award a Booker Prize in 1970, for some reason, but recently they awarded one to fill the gap. The book that won was recently read by your correspondent -Troubles, by J.G. Farrell.

Set in a hotel in Ireland around the time of the War of Independence (early 1920s, methinks), it tells the story of the time through the metaphor of the hotel and it's occupants. Really, I didn't know what to expect, but I enjoyed it - it's well crafted, but I didn't find it as engaging as some other books I've read recently (e.g. Room). I don't know if I'd make it a recommendation, though you probably would enjoy it.

J.G. won another Booker Prize for his book "The siege of Krishnapur," so I must check the library catalogue for that one and put it on my list if I can!

Onwards and Upwards, Asne Seierstad's "A Hundred and one Days" is next on the list.

And tonight's posting was brought to you by a Deuchars IPA (mmmmmm, wonderfully moreish every time) and a Brewdog Pilsner. Not at the same time though.