Older than the Pyramids - First days in Ireland
No, I may be 60, but I am not referring to myself in the title; that's later in this little diatribe.
March 18th arrives and it's off to Ireland! A few facts - Ireland has about 4.1 million people, and is about the size (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland combined) of the state of Maine. Our journey will take us around the country, mainly on the coast counterclockwise, and we are skipping the bigger cities in favor of the smaller towns and countryside.
Flew British Airways direct to London's Heathrow from Denver (around a 9 hour flight), then caught a connecting flight on Aer Lingus to Dublin. In spite of an hour and a half lay over in Heathrow, we still missed our connecting flight. Heathrow is a huge airport, lots of security hoops to jump through, and lots of construction with a long shuttle ride from terminal 5 where we landed to terminal 1, where we left for Ireland. For some reason they couldn't print our boarding passes for our Aer Lingus flight in Denver, so that combined with jumping through the Heathrow hoops meant arriving in Dublin about 2 hours later than planned.
Our first introduction to Ireland was on our Aer Lingus flight, and our row mate, Michael, a college professor of education at a University near or in Trim, about 45 minutes northwest of Dublin. Very warm gentleman, five children; one lives in London (who he was coming back from visiting), one in Chicago, one in Australia, and two in Ireland. Our visit highlighted several themes of the trip - the Irish are very warm and friendly, with a wonderful sense of humor; the Irish love Ireland, but the Irish tale is still one of emigration.
But no worries, smooth sailing in Dublin airport and car rental. Since we were a bit later than planned we decided to go directly to our bed and breakfast, Meadowview B&B in Navan, Nora is the proprietor, and she's been doing this for 24 years. She greeted us with a fresh pot of tea in her parlor with cakes - a wonderful start to what turned out to be a whole string of fantastic B&B experiences. An Austrian couple with their two 20 something daughter and son were the other guests - looked like a last family holiday before the daughter got married that summer (honeymooning in British Columbia). Great first dinner as well at the Round O restaurant and pub, a short walk from the B&B. At the restaurant we shared an alcove room with a grandfather (John Duddy), his son and 2 young grandsons. John was especially warm and friendly (see the warm and friendly theme is already humming).
On March 19th, we had the first of numerous great B&B breakfasts before heading out to the Neolithic site at Newgrange, just a few km from Navan. It was a cold and rainy day, cold remained a theme on this trip (coldest March on record for Ireland according to someone we met), but the wet would be gone in a few more days. Newgrange is the site of a large temple/tomb, where the main passageway aligns with the winter solstice (It's a UNESCO World Heritage site). Various theories abound on why it was built, mainly centering on either the religious temple theme or ancient burial ground (tomb). My personal vote is both of the above, with the main emphasis being as a religious site. The Newgrange temple/tomb dates to around 3200 BC, which is earlier than the great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt, which dates to around 2500 BC, and earlier than Stonehenge in England as well. There are signs that early man lived in Ireland as early as 8000 BC. Paul was our tour guide and did an excellent job of describing all of the above. Michael O'Kelly excavated the site from around 1962 to 1975, so it was only fairly recently discovered.
A few pics of Newgrange.
March 18th arrives and it's off to Ireland! A few facts - Ireland has about 4.1 million people, and is about the size (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland combined) of the state of Maine. Our journey will take us around the country, mainly on the coast counterclockwise, and we are skipping the bigger cities in favor of the smaller towns and countryside.
Flew British Airways direct to London's Heathrow from Denver (around a 9 hour flight), then caught a connecting flight on Aer Lingus to Dublin. In spite of an hour and a half lay over in Heathrow, we still missed our connecting flight. Heathrow is a huge airport, lots of security hoops to jump through, and lots of construction with a long shuttle ride from terminal 5 where we landed to terminal 1, where we left for Ireland. For some reason they couldn't print our boarding passes for our Aer Lingus flight in Denver, so that combined with jumping through the Heathrow hoops meant arriving in Dublin about 2 hours later than planned.
Our first introduction to Ireland was on our Aer Lingus flight, and our row mate, Michael, a college professor of education at a University near or in Trim, about 45 minutes northwest of Dublin. Very warm gentleman, five children; one lives in London (who he was coming back from visiting), one in Chicago, one in Australia, and two in Ireland. Our visit highlighted several themes of the trip - the Irish are very warm and friendly, with a wonderful sense of humor; the Irish love Ireland, but the Irish tale is still one of emigration.
But no worries, smooth sailing in Dublin airport and car rental. Since we were a bit later than planned we decided to go directly to our bed and breakfast, Meadowview B&B in Navan, Nora is the proprietor, and she's been doing this for 24 years. She greeted us with a fresh pot of tea in her parlor with cakes - a wonderful start to what turned out to be a whole string of fantastic B&B experiences. An Austrian couple with their two 20 something daughter and son were the other guests - looked like a last family holiday before the daughter got married that summer (honeymooning in British Columbia). Great first dinner as well at the Round O restaurant and pub, a short walk from the B&B. At the restaurant we shared an alcove room with a grandfather (John Duddy), his son and 2 young grandsons. John was especially warm and friendly (see the warm and friendly theme is already humming).
On March 19th, we had the first of numerous great B&B breakfasts before heading out to the Neolithic site at Newgrange, just a few km from Navan. It was a cold and rainy day, cold remained a theme on this trip (coldest March on record for Ireland according to someone we met), but the wet would be gone in a few more days. Newgrange is the site of a large temple/tomb, where the main passageway aligns with the winter solstice (It's a UNESCO World Heritage site). Various theories abound on why it was built, mainly centering on either the religious temple theme or ancient burial ground (tomb). My personal vote is both of the above, with the main emphasis being as a religious site. The Newgrange temple/tomb dates to around 3200 BC, which is earlier than the great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt, which dates to around 2500 BC, and earlier than Stonehenge in England as well. There are signs that early man lived in Ireland as early as 8000 BC. Paul was our tour guide and did an excellent job of describing all of the above. Michael O'Kelly excavated the site from around 1962 to 1975, so it was only fairly recently discovered.
A few pics of Newgrange.
Donna walking to Newgrange visiting center (umbrella was barely used after first few days)
Newgrange tomb/temple dating to 3200 BC
Carvings on rock at Newgrange
Entrance to Newgrange passageway that aligns with winter solstice
Newgrange site
Newgrange site
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