Oystercatcher Lodge & Bistro Carlingford

... 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 ...

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We want to have a good idea of the first month or so of our trip so that we can book some of the tours or buses in advance. After a week or so in Buenos Aires to recover from the flight and start finding our feet we are going to head down to Patagonia. From all advice it seems to make sense to know what you want to do here to avoid staying in one place too long or unnecessarily. Here ...

... while John read and I blogged. Then we decided we needed a change of pace for dinner and went to a little Italian restaurant by the river. We both had pasta dishes and washed it down with glasses of the house red. It was delicious, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Before we left, we spoke with a couple and their daughter who were sitting next to us. They LOVE the States, and go over as often as they can. Their daughter would like to go to college there ...

... the sea”. Donard indeed leaves just enough room for the cars to get by. We drove through the beautiful Kingdom of Mourne, with the Irish sea beside us.

Outside the town of Rostrevor is a tall granite obelisk, a monument to Robert Ross. His claim to fame was sacking the city of Washington, D.C. in 1814. It’s said that he ate President Madison’s dinner that had been left when Madison fled the White House. Then being most unappreciative, he had the White House ...

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.

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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.

... funny that we were told not to go far for 3.5hrs!

We got special sticker and hopped on the special bus, as its the only way to actually get into Newgrange. Its good that they actually restrict the amount of people going in and out. Our guide, Frank, was very dry but actually interesting to listen to. Poor bloke, he has to say the same thing so many times a day. We weren't allowed to take any photos inside which was a little ...

... but it paid off and we broke their centre pass twice. This was helped by brilliant defending efforts by Eliza, Lu D and Jess Brooks. Alex and Lu Sloan shot accurately from right around the ring, levelling the score leading into half-time. At the half-time break, Julie managed to Psych the whole team up and when the game re-started Sarah Ellis took some amazing intercepts which inspired the team to keep ...

... Mullingar and Kells before making our way into the Boyne Valley. I was hoping to get on the last tour of Newgrange. However, it was a little after 7 p.m when we got to the Visitor's Center, so, the site was closed. We continued on to Drogheda. As we pulled into town, I realized that we had made it from one side of Ireland to the other in about three hours of driving time. That realization was a big shock from someone who lives in a country where five hours of flight ...