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Published: July 10th 2014
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Dream Castle
Michelle's sleeping nook in our room, a little girl's dreamy little sleeping cove. Day 20 - Pre Pre History
We started off with a really nice breakfast at our Bed and Breakfast (Greengates in Blackrock, Ireland). The hosts were very friendly, and they had a girl about Michelle's age who sat and had breakfast with us. Another American family was staying there tonight as well, and it turns out that they lived in Arroyo Grande until 2 years ago. Small World! Michelle got to spend an hour playing with the host's daughter, including some fancy free time in an Irish rain shower. After saying goodbye and exchanging emails and pen-pal promises, we headed towards a neolithic site nearby. Bru na Boinne is a collection of passage tombs (3 big ones) built thousands of years before Stonehenge and the Pyramids. We were very impressed with the engineering work that went into this structure. Inside the largest structure (more a temple than a tomb) there was a long tunnel with 3 side chambers. The structure was aligned so that on the winter solstice, the sun, as it is rising, will shine through a small hole above the entrance and illuminate the floor of the central chamber up to about 4 inches with blinding light for
When in Ireland
You play in the rain. Thirsty Anyone? about 20 minutes. Only on that day, only at that time, every year. (In modern times they simulate the event with electric lights). The structure was freestanding, built without mortar with large stones and small filler rocks to help with settling. It was perfectly intact until a few hundred years ago when visitors started taking stones and making it unstable. More recently, minimal cement work has been done, but 99% of what you see is original. The building lets in zero rainwater and has done so for 5000 years (Incredible in Ireland). After our tour and museum visit, which took several hours, we drove to our lodging 3 hours southwest near Limerick. The Dungan Cottages (a Diamond property) is a collection of several cottages literally in the middle of farms and grazing land. It is far away from anything, has no internet, only satellite TV with 8 channels, and a cell phone for emergency use. It is quiet, peaceful, and isolated... Perfect for us! We look forward to several days of light activity.
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