More nice things to do on a nice Saturday!

Today we went all the way to Kilkenny, in the county of Kilkenny. They were celebrating 400 years of being a city (we'll have no mention here of the town/city issues.......) and organised a broadly sunny and rainfree day for the events.

Many of the attractions, including Kilkenny Castle, and Rothe House were open for free, and there were also some street entertainers. I liked that man with the diabolo (you know, the thing that's a cross between a spinning top and a yoyo, with 2 sticks and some string?), but I think there was more to his performance as we only caught up on the diabolo bit. Very impressive work. There were some other entertaining juggling hula-hoop acts, and the obligatory samba drum band. And some walking heads.

I also dropped into The Wine Centre, that which is one of my favourite beer-discovery spots (and nice wine and whisky too, btw). I managed to limit myself to 5 bottles - O'Haras leann folláin, 2 scottish beers (an 80/- and an oatmeal stout), a Clotworthy Dobbin, and a Black Wych...

I've been drinking the O'Hara's just now this evening - it's a very dark stout, a little more bubbly than I expected, with yeah, definitely hints of coffee and chocolate. It's a little like beery cold mocha. Nice. Something else that we've been enjoying recently is some Dolfin chocolate, all the way from Belgium. This evening it's been the milk chocolate with a hint of cinnamon. Yummy!

A nice Carlsberg.....

They've (recently?) started to brew some "craft brews" based on older recipes, much like Guinness' Brewhouse series of a couple of years ago. As the clouds scud across the sky and the rain occasionally drenches the deck this evening, I'm enjoying a bottle of Jacobsen Dark Lager. It's a big bottle - 750ml (that's a wine bottle!!!) and it's 5.8% ABV - this is one to spread over a night for sure.....!

It's very tasty. From the fridge it's nice, but as it warms up it improves, though I'd say if it got "warm" it mightn't be nice generally. Heavier than lager in taste, but not ale-ish (I'm an expert, listen to me...!) I would recommend it, though I'd say it's going to be hard to find.

Kilkenny's "The Wine Centre" is where I got it. Can't remember a price, but its good value whatever it is, for a bottle this size of stuff this drinkable.