We started our day with a bus tour heading north out of Dublin to County Meath. You know you are in good hands when your bus driver's name is Padder and he first tells you the joke: "There are 3 things us Irish celebrate soundly, Birth, Death, and Marriages...and, with any luck at all, we won't remember any of it!" (said of course with that lovely Irish brogue!) I have never met a more friendly people, with such delightful senses of humor--my kind of people! Our first stop was about a 40 minute drive out of Dublin at the Hill of Tara. The Hill is the ancient seat of the High Kings of Ireland, dating back perhaps over 5,000 years! From this ceremonial site it is said you can see 10 counties of Ireland!
This stone is called the Lia Fail (Stone of Destiny) at which the High Kings were crowned. According to legend, the stone would scream if a series of challenges were met by the would-be king, and at his touch the stone would let out a screech that could be heard all over Ireland. The stone said nothing when I touched it!
We were not able to spend much time here (practically ran up and down the hill). Josephine, our tour guide, says at least a taste is better than nothing at all, and I agreed!
Sheep droppings were abundant on the climb. Our tour guide, Josephine, lovingly called the droppings, "lovely little raisins". I'll never be able to eat a raisin again without thinking of our climb and the lovely sheep of Ireland, my beautiful Emerald Isle!
We continued on with our tour to Newgrange, the site of a Megalithic passage tomb, a fascinating UNESCO World Heritage Site. This passage tomb was built by the Neolithic people over 6000 years ago making this 1 of 4 tombs older than the pyramids! The site probably took several generations to build since it was built before the wheel was invented, and no horses were here yet! It took over 200,000 tons of stone, stacked like a house of cards and moved in from 80 km away to build the burial tomb. It took 80 men, 3 days to move 1 stone 3 km! The tomb is a fabulous example of being constructed for solar alignment. On the day of winter soltice, December 21st, the sun at sunrise will shine perfectly through the opening to light the passage into the tomb. Every year over 27,000 people participate in a lottery of only 100 winners to actually enter the tomb before 9:02 am to watch the sunrise send a ray of sun into the passage way--and only lasts for 13 minutes until 9:15. We were fortunate to witness this event through the magical, mystical use of lightbulbs! I did get a bit nervous when as we entered the tomb Frank, our guide, said that if anyone was claustrophobic they should enter last so they would not run anyone down when they were trying to get out! Most of you know my history with claustrophobia, but in this case I was fine, the tomb was NOT in any way like a MRI!
Our last stop on today's tour was the Snail Box, our first official Irish Pub, where I had my first official Irish coffee...with just a wee bit of Irish whiskey, enough to "get you going" for the day as Josephine says!
Ok, ok, I'll be honest....the bartender saw that I enjoyed my first so much that he gave me, complimentary of course, a second! I told you I love these Irish people! Perhaps it was a good thing that our time at the Snail Box was limited!
This is Connie and Kevin from Chicago that we enjoyed visiting with at the pub.
Tonight is our Hooley Pub Night! We have been assigned to eat at the Abbey Pub, which is supposed to be very good. Perhaps it is a good thing that we will arrive and depart by bus at an assigned time! No pub crawling tonight!
At St. Stephen's Green
The small sign right in front of the flower bed says, "keep off the grass". Not sure the Irish read signs well!
Tomorrow we head South out of Dublin, for our Wicklow Way tour. I know we will see more that the beautiful Emerald Isle has to offer. Now I know Mom, why your great grandfather, Parks Scott (I think it was him) used to claim to be from County Cork and danced his lively Irish jigs! The Irish do seem to enjoy life to the fullest!
Till tomorrow then, signing off from the Emerald Isle....d
PS...Had a great time at Pub "Hooley"(party) Night. We traveled to the north side of Dublin to eat and be entertained at the Abbey Pub,which dates back to the 16th century when it was built as a seminary for the local monks. The peat fire places were burning as we entered--GREAT smell! Wonder if I can smuggle some home? We went to the Abbey to have some creic (pronounced "crack") which means FUN! and we did!
There is nothing like Irish music, song and dance!
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