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.

Preparing for the trip continues

More and more of our trip plans are falling into place.  We will be meeting up with good friends at the Dublin Airport shortly after our arrival on Thursday, the 23rd.  We arrive about 8 am local time which, for us, will be 3 am EDT.  After we get done at the airport, we plan on heading to our apartment for a quick nap.  Having been in Ireland before, our friends have assured us they can get us to all the places we want to go.....eventually.  Ha!

We will posting some pictures here in the blog, but the vast majority will be uploaded to our Facebook pages. If you are Friends with either of us on FB, you should be able to follow our trip.

As it happens, on the day we arrive, the Tall Ships will have also arrived for a 4-day Festival. And, the festival is happening right next door to our apartment complex! If you're interested, here's a link to the festival information.  http://www.dublintallships.ie/festival/thursday-23rd/

And here is a map, taken from the brochure available at the link above, showing our apartments (Spencer Dock Apts) near the top edge of the map near the new Convention Center.

This is going to be so much fun for the first 4 days!

During the week we're in Dublin, we have lots to see. Much of it will happen as we use the much advertised "Hop On, Hop Off" Dublin Bus Tour. Basically, you buy one pass and take the bus to any of the stops, spend as much time as you like there, hop back on the bus (they come through about every 15 minutes), and go to the next stop. You have 2 days to use the pass so you can explore at a leisurely pace.

We also plan on driving to places such as Newgrange (Irish version of Stonehenge) and Powerscourt Gardens.  All that sort of stuff will be determined on a day-by-day basis.

Week 2 finds us in Tipperary.  More on that later, maybe after we're arrive in Dublin.

Go dtí an chéad uair eile  (Until next time.)     I have no idea how it's pronounced! Ha!

Getting ready for our Trip

Cindy and I are getting very excited about our upcoming trip to Ireland. It will be our first trip overseas! And our first passport stamps will be from Ireland!

We will be meeting up with good friends of ours, who we've met several times in Chicago at Celtic Woman concerts (probably the reason we chose Ireland in the first place!)

Our first week in Ireland will be spent in Dublin at the Spencer Dock Apartments. Located in the new Convention Center area of the city near the Liffey River. From there we hope to do many day trips to places we want to see in the eastern part of Ireland. Places like Powerscourt Gardens, Slane Castle, and Newgrange are on our list. And, of course, we will take the Bus Tour (Hop On, Hop Off) of Dublin to catch all the sights and history of the city.

After the first week, we head off to Tipperary for just over a week. We have a cottage ready for us in the little town of Upperchurch. Again, we hope to catch a lot of the local scenery and life of the Irish from there. We will also make day trips, hopefully to places like Galway, the Dingle Peninsula, and Waterford. All of our trips are very much a day-to-day decision!

So, check back here as we try to update this blog during our trip. Don't look for too much more until August 22nd. That's the day we leave from Rochester, go to Boston, and then arrive in Dublin on the morning of the 23rd.

That's all for now.