Driving to Dublin

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Geo: 53.3441, -6.26749

We had a lot of places to see and still turn in the hire car by 4 p.m. so we were up for breakfast in the Vanilla Pod Restaurant early.

We mapped out a day to visit ancient sites between Kells and Dublin stopping first at the Hill of Tara, a pagan sanctuary and one of the seats of the Gaelic kings, then moved on to Monasterboice, site of some of the most famous and oldest high crosses in Ireland. Our third stop was at the visitor centre of Newgrange and Knowth, prehistoric monuments built over 5,000 years ago. When we arrived at the centre around 12:30, we learned that we could not get tickets until late in the afternoon. Since we had to have the car back before the time the tour would be over, we have to put this one off until another visit to Ireland. It is only accessible by guided tour.

Driving today, we spent a lot of time looking for places and turning around and backtracking. The Garmin is really not helpful for these kind of places that don't have addresses. We hopped on and off the M1 toll road paying one pound ninety each time while we looked for each site.

We ended up stopping for lunch and asking for directions to Newgrange at the Monasterboice Inn. The waitress did not know how to get there although we knew we were within twenty miles of it. One of the bartenders gave Philip directions--go up to the M1, get on going south (paying the toll again), and get off at the next exit. From there we just followed the signs.

After leaving Newgrange, we went on to the Dublin airport which was conveniently on the north side of the city. We dropped off the car which was given a brief once-over -- not the thorough examination the other car received on return to Glasgow. The person who received the car also called a taxi for us to go into Dublin. It arrived within a few minutes and dropped us at the Conrad Dublin hotel after a twenty minute ride.

We checked in and went to an early dinner in the pub attached to the hotel, Alfie Byrne's by Galway Bay Brewery. There were not many people there other than a few having drinks after work. We called it an early night.

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Photos

Alfie Byrne's by Galway Bay Brewery
"Here at Galway Bay Brewery, it makes us feel awful that so many people out there are forced to drink tasteless and bland beer, so we decided we would cut the crap and carefully hand craft our beer for flavour."