Carrickdale Hotel Dundalk

... Irish road signs, and stopping for "liters of petrol!"

We arrived at Newgrange with time to spare before the tour, so we first wandered around the visitors' center, which gives background on the site. We then had some yummy snacks at the visitor center's cafe. Finally, we walked across a bridge over the Boyne River to take the bus to Newgrange. Newgrange is known as a "passage grave" and an important ...

... small), nor of the astronomical accuracy and intensely physical labor that went into the building of this enormous mound. It was a wonderful tour, and I’m so glad we opted to see both sites.

We had a little lunch at the visitor center, looked at the exhibits, and said good-bye to the couple from Colorado. Our next stop was the Hill of Slane, another part of the “St. Patrick Tour” we seem to be taking. It was on this hill that ...

... only church in Ireland that still has private pews.

We reconnected with the coast road in the pretty seaside resort town of Newcastle. We stopped by the beach, and I picked up a few stones that I found in the sand. John started moaning about the added weight to our luggage, but I promised to make adjustments. They’re just little rocks! From where we stood, we could see Slieve Donard, the tallest of the Mourne Mountains. It is here that “the dark Mournes sweep down ...

A quick trip along the coast before returning to the hotel.

A nice little coastline.

I did get caught in a police roadblock. Luckily, I have a UK license. Made it a breeze to get through without many questions. Curious to find out what they were looking for.

... br>
One of the Irish Round Towers is here as well. These were used as lookouts as well as refuges. The door is usually 12-20 ft up and was accessed by ladder. The first floor inside also had a ladder access on the inside. After going in, the ladders were pulled up.

Newgrange was built around 3200 BC and is older than the Great Pyramid in Egypt. It also is aligned with the winter solstice so the sun lights up the tomb. There are decorated stones around the perimeter and inside the tomb.
The internal chamber is roughly 20 feet tall.

... I had homemade lasagna - it warrants a mention as it is for first bit of red meat (well probably any meat for that matter) that I have had in a couple of months. For those that don't know, Max is a vego so not much meat consumed in our house!

We were all a bit full and sleepy after lunch, but back to Newgrange we went. The lady we originally talk to told us not to go too far, which was rather amusing. Guess you had to be there, but ...

... only for the huge sum of money Rochelle spent on jewellery in the very last shop we went into on our entire trip. Would you believe it? I was one shop away from coming back with some money, but, no, she went and spent the lot!!

Off to Dublin airport tomorrow, and then the dreaded flights back home. We'll be travelling for just under 2 days, so sleeping pills will be our best friend.

... thing they've done that we Americans should have done a long time ago are roundabouts. They rock, taking the place of intersections with stop lights in most of the country. They do still have lights, but they are pretty limited, especially in the more rural locales. Anyhow, on to Waterford where the attraction was, yes, the international Waterford Crystal factory. Pretty cool stuff. We took the tour and got to see them blowing, shaping, marking, carving and ...

... accomodations up to that point, so we figured we could push our luck once again. We set Drogheda as our target destination for that evening.

Given that our goal was to get to the east coast, one would think we would head east. Instead, we headed south from Doolin. Why would we head south? Well, we decided to make a small detour and go to the famous Cliffs of Moher. Their sheer size (700 feet) make them very impressive. However, the contrast between their ...