Breweries

There must be something about breweries that makes them hard to find. I figure I should mention this because in Dublin I went to see the Guinness Brewery and do their tour. Then a week after I got home, as part of my brother's bachelor party, we went to visit the Samuel Adams Brewery in Jamaica Plain (basically in Boston).

As Lisa and Liza can attest, the 15 minute walk the guy from the Dublin Tourist Center said it would take to get to the Guinness Storehouse turned into at least a 45 minute walk as we walked the entire circumference of the Guinness factory proper and then finally had to do several zigzaggy turns and ask directions twice before we circled our way into what ultimately appeared to be an alley that housed the Storehouse, which is Guinness tour center, etc. There were only signs on the last two turns, and as the brewery is one of the major sites of Dublin I was surprised that there were not more signs on how to get there. After looking at the map, we saw that we took an obvious wrong turn, which was my fault. To my defense, I told them that my direction sense was very poor. All in all, after the search everyone was very tired of walking by the end of the tour.

Follow that up with the Samuel Adams Brewery tour. We played 9 holes of golf before heading to the brewery. One of the guys driving had a GPS on his car and was able to program in the address of the Brewery. First off, let me point out that their brewery is in one of the sketchiest locations in Boston. That said it also was in a very back alley location and had only signs in the last two turns or so. The GPS that was to lead us to the location, kept turning us in a giant circle around the brewery to the point I think we may have navigated around it at least once and possibly twice before there was a frantic couple turns and somehow we dove into the parking lot.

I am not sure why I think they'd try to put more signs telling how to get there, but maybe the cities won't let them. In any event, I think the next brewery I visit for a tour is going to require at least an extra 45 minutes to find the place the way things are going so far.