Day Two in the Green Country

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It was a miserable night. The big girls, of course, did great, but Eliza was up every half hour or so. Because Jonathan has not been feeling well I nominated myself to try and deal with her which left me a little more than exhausted once morning came round. After a nice quick run around the castle grounds though I felt like I was able to tackle the day. The girls got dressed and watched tv in their room while we showered and packed up. I can’t say enough about how great this set up was with the family suite. I would highly recommend a family staying here, and I felt this way BEFORE breakfast. We had an amazing traditional Irish breakfast. Eggs, blood sausage and regular sausage, bacon (big pieces which prompted Abigail to say we should ask if they have big pigs!), mushrooms, baked beans, scones, brown bread, fruit, plus jams and nuts and tea and coffee. We stuffed ourselves and the girls were in heaven. After settling our (incredibly reasonable) tab we left the farmhouse and headed out. Next destination: Newgrange.

Yesterday while the girls and I explored Malahide Castle and Eliza napped Jonathan got his hands on the guidebook and decided we should go see this historic site. It took us about 45 minutes to get there and we found it very easily on a side road outside of Drogheda. Initially I was a little skeptical of how the girls would fare at something like this. Not only was I pleasantly surprised by their genuine interest but I was personally blown away. This site is one of many portal tombs that have been discovered around Ireland. They are megalithic, which means that they are monstrous stone structures and they date from the stone ages. They are one of the oldest man made things on earth (3200 BC), older than the pyramids in Egypt! It was unbelievable. The museum was terrific and the girls loved seeing how people used to live (clothes they wore, tools they used, etc). It really outlined the history of the area for all of us so that by the time we took the mini-bus ride (included in our ticket price which we only had to pay for the adults) we were really ready to see this site. I don’t suppose the pictures can do it justice because you can’t capture the magic on film, especially when you aren’t allowed to photograph the inside of the tomb. At one point during the guided tour they shut off the lights and gave us a demonstration of what it is like on the winter solstice when the light shine through the roof portal for a full 17 minutes (a year!) and it was spectacular (despite the girls being a little anxious about the darkness). All in all it was an amazing side trip for us and I would highly recommend it to anyone. It was pretty unbelievable to be at a place so ancient; we kept telling the girls that we don't know anyone who has ever been to any place this old, and they were in awe of that.

We picnicked in the car park and then took off from Newgrange towards our next stop, Trim, which is on the way to the major (ha!!) highway across Ireland. Trim’s claim to fame is the castle there that is the largest Norman castle in Ireland (it was also used in the filming of Braveheart). By the time we got there both Eliza and Abigail were napping so we took turns walking the grounds with Emma. It was impressively big, but (and we feel we reserve the right to be picky at this point in our travels) we’ve seen better 😊 We took off from there and wandered down some seriously narrow, windy roads to the N6. Now on the map this looks like a major thoroughfare and Jonathan made the mistake when we got on it of commenting, wow at this speed we will be in Galway in about an hour! Yeah right.

I had read a lot on line and everyone said it took 4-4.5 hours to cross Ireland, which Jonathan couldn’t believe, until the road detoured off to the side and we found ourselves on a one lane road through every town in the middle of Ireland. It was torture. Luckily Eliza slept through most of it and I am thankful for the people who invented MP3 players and Leapsters for entertaining the big girls. The adults were definitely the most frustrated, but I have to pat us on the back for really taking it in stride. We finally made the decision to abandon our earlier plan of having dinner in Galway (which was still and hour from our evening’s accommodations) and stop earlier and stretch and eat. We chose this little town of Loughrea which seemed from the heft of the tourist signs like it would be lovely. Well, it wasn’t that great but we did manage to find a nice spot for dinner and I stocked up on some breakfast supplies for the next few mornings. We treated our great travelers to ice cream and got ourselves a coffee for the road and took off thinking we would be there in no time. Well, it was not to be so, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort. There is really only so fast you can go when you are driving on the opposite side of the car, on the “wrong” side of the road and on a street that really should only be for one way traffic! Jonathan was so impressive, though he did have a good navigator at his side (insert another smiley face here if you like).

Luckily we never got lost and despite the length we made it to Lisdoonarva a little before 8pm. I entertained the girls with just about every single fairy tale I could conjure (Jonathan later remarked that I was impressively entertaining but he wanted to argue some of the finer points of my narrations at a later point!). We had looked into staying in a B&B over on this side as well, but as costs started to mount I looked into staying a hostel. I found this place online, the Sleepzone, which had three hostels in this area. The one in Lisdoonarva was close to The Burren and the Cliffs of Moher, two places on our list, so I contacted them and they said they had a family room available and we would save 50 euro a night to boot! It is a great place with a double bed with a bunk bed on top, another set of bunk beds and a private bathroom. The kids ran around and then we settled them into bed. We are currently retired to the bar downstairs for a few Guiness and enjoying the WiFi before planning day three in a green country. Phew, this traveling is tiring. Good thing the smiles, and sites, are worth it.

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Photos

The Girls at Newgrange
This site was not discovered until the 1600's. It was not excavated and protected until the 20th century. You can see how part of it is still covered in earth and the stone part has been stripped to show how the tomb was constucted.

Entrance to Newgrange
The rock in front shows some of the typical artwork found in and around the tomb. The girls had fun deciphering some of it in the museum. The section above the doorway is where the sunlight shines through on the winter solstice every year.

Stones from Far Away
The large stones that make up the base of the tomb were transported across 15 kilometers (remember no wheels for wagons or anything!). They chose these stones because they were easy to carve their designs into. The smaller white stones (shown in this picture) were transported from 80 kilometers away!!!

Another Cannon Shot
How many more?? Hard to say...but here is Emma in front of the Trim Castle in Ireland.

Trim Castle Ruins
We realized afterwards that we should have gone to the north side for the photo ops, but we settled for this one.

Comments

[Laramees]

WOW
Again, what can I say? Amazing. Makes me think we should have planned a month or more trip. Have fun. Can't wait to hear more.