The last few days in Ireland

OK, here's the recap of the last few days of our Ireland trip, with some details that need to be filled in when I get back to the US (more on that later).

Tuesday 9/18
We got up in the house where we were staying, after the confusion with the reservation, and went next door, to where we were supposed to be staying, and had breakfast. Turns out two sets of couples who were traveling together from Arizona, and staying at that B&B were going to the same first location as us, and we bumped into them when we got to Trim Castle.

Our impressions of Trim were that it was tied with Bunratty for the coolest castle we visited. It was a little less well preserved inside, but there were large grounds, with the curtain wall still mostly intact, a series of excavations going on that found remnants of other buildings in the complex, and walking trails where you could see what was left of early churches, all along the River Boyne.

What Trim Castle lacked in terms of castle preservation (there was alot of open space, as center floors were no longer there, and a plexiglass roof cover was in place to protect the inside of the castle), it made up for with a great guided tour. This was the point at which we learned alot about castles - why the stairways up the turrets went clockwise, why round building was preferred to squared off building (to find out why, you'll have to ask us).

Trim was beautiful, though!

Main building/Tower house


Excavation of former Great Hall site


Looking out from the top of the castle at the turrets in the curtain wall


We headed out from Trim to Newgrange. This was one thing we were really excited about. In the valley of the River Boyne (Bru na Boinne, in Gaelic), were early settlements, of late stone age peoples. As part of these settlements, megalithic tombs were built, and dot the landscape. These tombs are large mounds, with chambers in them, and souterrains connecting some of the mounds built roughly 5000 years ago. They predate even Stonehenge.

Access to the tombs was guided from the Bru na Boinne visitors center, and you were bussed out to the tombs. There are three main areas around there - Knowth, Dowth, and Newgrange. Access to Dowth is limited, as it is contained on private property, but apparently you can get permission from the owner to visit. We took the two part tour of Knowth and then Newgrange. Knowth was okay, but the tour guide didn't do a very good job explaining the tombs, but I think part of that is that the archeology work down at Knowth is a little different. While you could see passages, you couldn't really go into them, and could only go into the manmade chamber in the largest mound.

This gives some perspective as to the size of the mounds


It's hard to see here, but the large stones contain neolithic carvings, done by the inhabitants of this area. The ledge over the stones was manmade, to protect the stones found in the area.


When we went to Newgrange, though, we were very impressed. The guide was much better, and we got to really see the inside of the chamber. In the large mound at Newgrange, there is a passage that goes about 60 feet inside the mound, very low and very tight, which opens up to a chamber that is illuminated for the five days around the Winter Solstice, by the rising sun. It was such a mastery of engineering, from the spiral roof of the chamber, supporting millions of pounds of dirt that is totally waterproof, to the alignment of the light box where the Solstice sunlight comes in, which is over your head when you enter the passage, and below your feet when you get to the chamber. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the chamber, but here's the mound, for perspective



We left Newgrange, thoroughly excited for having seen this, and stayed in a B&B I can't remember at the moment!

Wednesday 9/19

We headed into Dublin, and got majorly lost. Again, little signage to guide you, one-way streets, and general confusion. There were two things we wanted to see - the Guinness brewery and Kilmainham Gaol.

First, we found Guinness. When we got there, the free parking lot was full, but the very nice attendant let us sit outside to wait for someone to leave. We spent about 45 minutes parked there waiting, but we were able to relax and do some reading and just veg out after trying to find Guinness.

Once we got there, we were sorely disappointed. Our advice to anyone visiting Dublin - save yourself the money, and go just drink some Guinness in a pub. The tour was self-guided, through self-aggrandizing displays about the beer, and was the most expensive tour we had taken, even after using our student IDs to get student discounts.

Guinness is dead to me now.

After leaving Guinness, we tried to find Kilmainham Gaol. If we thought our earlier adventures in driving were bad, oy! How we fit down some of the streets we were on, and how we found our way, without finding the gaol, is beyond us. So, we headed into the town center, got to our hotel, and checked in. While the Jury's Inn in Cork was very nice, the Jury's in Christchurch section of Dublin was *shrugs shoulders* "eh".

We walked around a bit, tried some pizza at a decidedly non-PC pizza chain in Ireland - Apache Urban Pizza, which featured pizzas named for famous Native Americans, and huge photos of said Native Americans. The pizza was okay.

By this point, nothing was really getting us excited about Ireland. We had reached a bit of our limit of traveling, and weren't really liking anything. That is, until we found the Bull and Castle gastropub , right near our hotel. They offered amazing food, paired with beer from around the world, in a German beer hall atmosphere. This is one place everyone who visits Dublin should visit!

We went back to the hotel to crash and sort our receipts for customs claims, to figure out how much we spent. We really know how to rock the excitement!

Thursday 9/20

After breakfast in a coffeeshop, as opposed to full Irish breakfast, we did some last minute shopping at the Tourist Information shop, checked out of the hotel, and got detailed directions to the Kilmainham Gaol.

This jail was built during Victorian Times, when it was thought that fresh air and light could help rehabilitate prisoners. It was one of the first of the new style of jails. There were two wings, one older with standard grey cells and one newer, in the Victorian style. See if you can guess which is which!





Once we left the jail, we headed out towards our last B&B. It was very near the airport, which was good given our early flight. Along the way, we saw signs for a set of shopping centers that we assumed would have more Ireland-themed stuff. We were sadly mistaken. Not that they didn't have what we were looking for, but our best efforts to follow signs through roundabouts failed to materialize a mill shopping center.

We found the B&B, checked in, and found a pub in Swords to get dinner. It was another early night, especially since we had an early morning to get to the airport.

Friday 9/21

We left at the ass-crack of dawn, got lost trying to find the rental car dropoff, and finally got to the airport. Travel note for anyone going to Ireland - if you can avoid flying out of Dublin, do it! Shannon airport, where we flew into, was small, easy to navigate, and pleasant. Dublin was cramped, difficult to figure out, and confusing.

Our flight back was uneventful, but long. I have to say, the 7 year old girl sitting in front of us was much better behaved, with regard to getting cranky about the long flight, than my dear wife. By hour five, she was done. Kaput. Finished. We couldn't get off the plane fast enough.

We got to philly, went through customs, where Erin ticked off the customs agent by trying to help a woman with a very short connection. When we were called to the window, Erin motioned for the other woman to go up, at which point, the customs agent laid into both the other woman and us, for not following orders. Oh, well. That was at passport control. The guy at declarations was much nicer.

We got back to Albany on time, but our bags didn't...they showed up on Saturday afternoon.

All in all, it was an amazing honeymoon, and a wonderful trip, with some small hiccups. *sappy moment* kinda like life I guess.