Friday, Aug. 24: Newgrange, Knowth, Slane Castle

A great day in Ireland today. Started off with a very rainy trip north to Newgrange. Breakfast first in at Daly's Inn in Donore. By then, the rain had stopped. Then onto Newgrange. It's a structure in which a passage has been found down which the light of the rising Sun, on only the winter solstice, passes all the way to the end. Then off to Knowth, another site of mounds constructed to follow the motion of the Sun. In this case, the structure allows light from the equinox suns to go down one passage in the morning and a passage on the exact opposite side at sunset. Then off to Slane Castle, site of the taping of the Cetic Woman concert "A New Journey". Very nice tour of the castle, now a private residence. Quite a history and quite an elegant castle. Finally, a stop at the site of the Battle of the Boyne, quite an historical battle in Irish history. Then back to Dublin and some bad traffic. Finally found a turn to get us out of the worst of it and find our way back home. Out for some dinner and another stroll along the Tall Ships Festival. Some latte and a muffin and time to call it a day.

Newgrange

In front of the passage into Newgrange

A couple of the smaller mounds at Knowth

Carvings on one of the stones outlining the largest mound at Knowth.

The front of Slane Castle

A view from one of the Tall Ships of the Convention Center and north side of the Liffey River.

At the Tall Ships Festival

Here are couple pictures from Thursday night - the Tall Ships Festival on the Liffey River, just a block from our apartment.  Lots of places to eat just about any kind of fast food. Plus, lots of beer tents! There's even an area with carnival rides.

This view looks north across the river at the new Convention Center.

One of the larger of the Tall Ships.

A view toward the Tall Ships area looking at the new Beckett Bridge.



Thursday, Aug. 23rd: We've Arrived!

Just  a quick update to let everyone know we arrived safe and sound. Flights were uneventful and we arrived in Dublin 30 minutes ahead of schedule thanks to a strong tail wind. We waited for our friends to arrive on their flight from Chicago, about an hour.  Kasey and Eric soon arrived and off we went to find our rental car.

We had some adventures trying to find the rental car place. Turned out we needed a shuttle from the company to get to their location. Got directions to get us our apartment site, but missed a turn and ended up taking a nice tour around and then through Dublin.  Driving on the left, with the stick shift in your left hand, is quite an adventure.  I tried to help with directions as best I could. We eventually found our apartment location and checked in. Very nice place! 'll try to post a couple pictures here or on Facebook when I have more time.

We immediately decided we needed some rest. It was, after all, 12 Noon here, which for our bodies meant 7 a.m.  We had gotten only a little sleep on the plane over the past 24 hours!  We've taken a 5 hour nap at this point. Feeling better. Coming up on 6 p.m. local time. Looking now to go and get a decent meal and maybe check out some of the Tall Ships Festival. Real sleep should come easy tonight.

Oh, and we were greeted by a very pleasant day! Partly sunny skies and upper 60's or so.  Let's hope we can enjoy more just like this one.