For the next leg of our journey, we picked up our Hertz Rent-a-Car...
By the way, in Ireland, THIS is a full size minivan (equivalent to a Ford Galaxy)!!!
Dennis was brave enough to offer to drive first, and boy was it weird to have to drive on the "wrong" side of the road. Even being a passenger my heart stopped a few times! It was good that the very first part of our trip at least had us on a divided highway so it wasnt immediate shock of cars driving at you on the "wrong" side... but we all chipped in adding "stay to the left!"'s fairly often as we all struggled to get used to it!
About 30 minutes later, we got off the M51, and headed to where the GPS and Google Maps had given us for Newgrange. Well it didnt quite seem right (although we found out later we actually drove by it!!), and we ended up at Newgrange farm. She directed us to take something like six lefts which brought us to Slane, and then eventually to the Newgrange visitors center!
We signed up for the 12:45 tour of the Newgrange monument, and wandered the visitors center. Even more importantly, Eric & I had our first Irish meal! Chicken, Leek & Mushroom Pie!
We took a small bus over to the monument for our Tour. The site was interesting from the outside, it almost just looked like some stones built into the hill. Our guide had this amazing intonation that allowed him to sound super serious, yet have a mild sense of humor, as well as a sense of foreboding. He spoke of how this was built over 5.000 years ago, and how just hauling the stones from 80km away was a huge feat in itself. The excavation and restoration began in the 1960's and they had to rebuild most of the white quartz face, as it had grown into the earth.
But the most amazing part of the tomb was that the entrance and its little overhead inlet match up so that when you stand inside the tomb at sunrise on the winter solstice, the sun pours in as the sharp beam of light that within minutes illuminates the entire tomb. They actually have a simulation, for which they bring tours of around 20 people into the tomb, and our guide played human tetris to get everyone into spots where they would not block the light, but where everyone could see it. It was awe inspring. As Dennis said, to stand there, and realize a person stood in the same room over 5,000 years ago. And to realize they had the intelligence to build a room that was lit by the sunrise of the winter solstice. Amazing!!
This is a photo of my dad, Dennis & I standing in front of the tomb after our tour. You can see the chamber that lets the light in, just above Dennis's head. It was definitely well worth the stop on our trip!
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