"Give every man his D.E.W."

Today was an awesome day!  Ashleen, Melon, Hope, Erin, Mike, and I went to Tullamore, Co. Offaly.  Co. Offaly is where Erin's family is from, so going here was on her bucket list while in Ireland.  Our plan for the day was to go to Charleville Castle, Digan's Pub (Digan is Erin's last name), and the Tullamore D.E.W. Visitor Centre.
After getting off of the train in Tullamore we started on our long walk to Charleville Castle.  The castle was far, far down a dirt road past soccer fields and a really cool climbing tree (that would be visited later on).  The castle itself was beautiful, but there was a lot of construction going on around it and there were some really funky signs... like one with a person in a graduation cap.  Who knows why, but that was bolted onto a tree nearby.  This castle bears the name of a popular type of cheese in Ireland and is the picture you will find on their wrappers.  (Charleville is really good cheese!  Melon and I buy it for our grilled ham and cheese sandwiches).

(Mike being a gargoyle) 

(Part of Charleville Castle) 

(No parking on the steps?) 

(Pretty flowers)

(Me and Hope pulling a Captain Morgan)

On our walk back we stopped at the super cool climbing tree and Mike became our photographer.  He got really into it and was loving taking pictures.

(These boots were made for walking) 

(The girls: Melon, Hope, Erin, Me, Ashleen) 

(So much roomie love)

The next place we headed for was city center.  We walked all over town trying to find Digan's Pub so that we could have lunch there.  After searching for awhile, we asked a couple on the street who told us that Digan's had closed down a few months before, so instead we grabbed a bite to eat at a cheap place down the street.
The Tullamore D.E.W. Visitor Centre was our next stop on our journey.  We walked inside the old distillery and signed up for the tour and then looked around the shop while we were waiting.  The tour was really cool!  Our guide first took us through the history of Tullamore D.E.W.  It was founded in 1829 and later renamed Tullamore D.E.W. after it's new owner in the late 1800's D.E. Williams.  The company was in his family until the mid-1950s when they had to sell it to an Irish Whiskey Distillery that was trying to save the industry.  Recently it was bought by a Scottish whiskey company and they are in the process of bringing the distillery back to Tullamore where it started.
On our tour, we also learned about how the triple distilled and triple blended whiskey was made.  The process was really cool and it was neat to look at all of the old equipment.  But what everyone was looking forward to was the taste-testing.  We each got samples of three different Tullamore whiskeys:  Original (40%), Old Bonded Warehouse Release (46%), and 12-year Reserve (40%).  My favorite one was the 12-year.  I couldn't finished the Old Bonded Warehouse because it was way too strong and yucky.  Bleh.  We learned how the different ingredients, the different woods the barrels were made of, and the number of times the product was distilled would make the whiskey taste different and be more appealing to the consumer.  Tullamore D.E.W. is so popular because of its unique feature of being both triple-distilled and triple-blended.

(Tullamore D.E.W.) 

(My whiskey!) 

(Me at the tasting) 

(Ashleen, Me, and Melon at the private tasting room bar) 

(Me in the hallway shaped like a bottle of Tullamore D.E.W.)

We left the Visitor Centre with a lot of gifts for friends and family back home and began to explore the rest of the town.  While walking around we finally came across Digan's.  Although it was closed down, Erin still got to have her picture taken in front of it like she wanted to.  We also made a quick trip to St. Mary's Church down the road because it looked so beautiful as we walked through town.

(St. Mary's Church)

The train ride back was very uneventful, though I must say that the trains here are spectacular!  Very, very clean and super efficient.  And they have free Wifi!  They need more trains like this in the States.  It would be so much more efficient than the transportation we have now.
On that note, I guess I'll stop writing!

"When we drink, we get drunk.
When we get drunk, we fall asleep.
When we fall asleep, we commit no sin.
When we commit no sin, we go to heaven.
So, let's all get drunk, and go to heaven!"