Ireland-- Day 6

In the morning we parted ways with Keyton and Liz-- they went up north and we went East to Dublin. On the way to Dublin, we stopped at Newgrange, another one of the highlights of our trip. It was a little out of the way, so we weren't sure if we should fit it in, but I'm so glad we did! It was the oldest thing we saw in Ireland, dating from 3200 BC. In fact, the ruins there are older than the pyramids.

We went to the site at Knowth first...
These mounds are tombs that have passageways that align so that on the Fall and Spring equinoxes, the sun shines down the passageway to the center of the chanber. At this site, we couldn't walk in, but we did take a peek in and walked on top. It was so long ago, no one really knows all the details of why they would build them, but they guess it was to help keep track of the seasons and perhaps to help spirits reach heaven and as a form of worship.

Amazingly, the mounds were so well built that they are perfectly preserved-- no water leakage, no structural damage to the passageways, nothing. The passageways are covered by layers of sod, dirt and rocks, that perfectly distributed the weight and sloughed rainwater out and away from the passageway. Surrounding the mounds are huge rocks with carvings on them. Studies have shown the the huge rocks came from an area something like 40 km north of the site, and the white rocks came from an area something like 80 km south of the site.

Whatever they built them for, it was amazing to think how much time and effort was involved in the building process. These were people who spent most of their time building shelter and gathering food. That they would gather huge stones from different parts of Ireland and haul them and tons of dirt up on a hill, keep track of the sun patterns, and put the materials together perfectly in an intricate way without modern machinery or science says a lot about their devotion to their family members who passed on and their gods. It make me wonder at what people in our society, 5000 years later, would do for their religion and families?
Next we went to the site at Newgrange, a little more restored and open than Knowth. We got to go inside, down a narrow passageway to the chamber... which was under a 20 foot high dome. Good thing we're not claustrophibic! Here, on the shortest day of the year, Dec. 21st, the sun's rays hit the inner chamber. They think perhaps that the dead were put in here and when the sun hit, their souls were transported to the afterlife. The guide turned off the lights and showed us, with an electric light, how the sun would shine in. I guess there's a lottery you can enter to be one of the lucky ones to be there each year and really see it.

This is the passageway.
This is the outside. The white rocks with the granite stone pattern has been reconstructed-- just a guess of how it might have looked. Over time, the dirt had sloped down and flattened out the shape of the mound. They might not have even known about the sunray deal, except when they created the indent to make and easier access (before the people climbed over the large front stone, but they didn't want tourists to do that and wear down the markings) they found the top 'window' that lets the light through.
They really have no idea what these markings mean. They could be maps, astronomy charts, religious signs....
I loved the 'tree tunnels' we went through to get to Knowth.



After this afternoon trip, we dropped off the rental car. We put 1,487 km (934 miles) on the car in 5.5 days! And that's even a more impressive number considering the types of roads we were driving on-- narrow windy roads, not 75 mph freeways!

Ireland-- Day 5

How would you like this view to wake up to every morning? We had a lovely room at our B&B in Dingle, with this view out our window. The beginning of a great day!

The day started off with a drive, route courtesy of Keyton and Liz's GPS system. She did a pretty good job-- only a few funny detours :). Our first stop was Bunratty Castle. Rick doesn't even deign to discuss this castle-- just says it's a touristy site better to be skipped. But we had a fun time and the kids loved it too. It was a decorated castle and town (think Williamsburg) and they did a pretty good job. I guess Rick isn't always spot-on :).
Our next stop was supposed to be one of the highlights of our whole trip. Sadly, it was pretty miserable for me. The Cliffs of Moher are five miles of soaring cliffs as high as 650 feet about the ocean. Supposedly the best way to see them is by boat. The website claims that sea-sickness isn't even an issue to be considered. Perhaps I should insist on a revision? It was beautiful, but I was so sick and everyone else appreciated the scenery much more than I was able to. Oh well.
Um, this was at the beginning of the ride, before the humongous waves and spinning in the water for an extra 45 minutes added to the ride while we waited for the previous boat to refuel.
The awesome rock formations by the pier.
Luckily my stomach calmed down after the ride in time eat eat yummy pizza and we settled in for the night at our hotel.

I hope this picture conveys my reasoning behind feeling moments of terror while Kevin was driving. I think he was trying to get as close to the greenery wall as possible ! Probably a good thing, considering the narrowness of the roads I suppose. These tiny windy roads had a speed limit of 100 km/hr, which Kevin considered a goal, and I considered a death wish. I must admit that it was really good for us that Kevin was driving and did do such an excellent job at adapting to the road conditions. If I was the driver, we'd still be back in Ireland navigating the roads at 20 km/hr!

Ireland-- Day 4

The fun of Day 4 actually started the night before. By the time we got home from the concert, Keyton, Liz, Emeline, and Jarom had arrived! We had a lot of fun catching up and hanging out at our B&B. The kids were in hyper overdrive after travelling all day, so it was fun to see them so excited and happy.

We started out Day 4 with another huge traditional Irish breakfast. Yum! Good thing, because we never really did stop for lunch, just had nutella sandwiches and apples at the beach.

We started off with a little self-guided (well, Rick-guided) walking tour of Dingle. It was such a cute town, I think it was my favorite one on the trip.
Look at these humongous calla lillies! And my cute niece Emeline in front of them. She was my little buddy this trip. It was fun to have her always want to sit by me and hold my hand!
There's a (real) dolphin who crazily enough, lives out in the harbor. Like for the last 25 years! Jarom and Eme had fun playing on his statue by the port.
We took a windy walk down along the harbor too.

After our walk we headed for the car for a scenic drive of the Dingle peninsula. First stop-- a ring fort that still has 'beehive huts' left intact inside, showing off some great skills of creating a hut out of rocks without mortar that didn't cave in. They are even built so that the rocks are slanted outwards so the rain can't get in.
Look at that coastline!
On the drive we also saw where they filmed parts of Ryan's Daughter and Far and Away, rushes growing alongside the road that are used for thatched-roof houses, several boarding houses where Irish kids are sent for Gaelic intensive language training programs, and areas of land so rocky that tons of rock fences were built not just to mark territory but to just have a place to put the rocks cleared out for farmland.

Our great find of the day though, was a beach! We hung out there for quite a while, the kiddies-- and adults-- had a lot of fun.

Looking at the clams, barnacles, and snails. We even saw a sea star!
Keyton and kiddos
What a beautiful little beach!
Next was the Blasket Islands-- here's a picture from the lookout. Unfortunately, the historical center was not nearly as interesting as the one we went to the day before. It was a pretty sleepy movie and a quick museum visit. About 160 people lived on the islands until 1953, and were isolated from a lot of other happening in Ireland throughout the times, so they are a symbol of the ancient Gaelic culture and traditional Irish communities. They even were relatively untouched by the potato famine because they had a more varied diet and livelihood. The Blasket Islands are the western-most part of Europe. During the most populated time of the peninsula, 40,000 people lived here. Some of the fields up on the tops of the hills are so steep. Rick says they have been untouched since 1845... After the famine there was never again a need to farm so high. Now only 10,000 people live on the peninsula.
The last stop for the day was the ruined church of Kilmalkedar, a Norman center of worship, built in the 12th century. Interestingly enough, it was built when England replaced the old monastic settlements (like all the island ones) in an attempt to centralize their rule. On the same site, there's also old medievel tombs and an ogham stone 900 years older than the church-- so many different parts of history all in the exact same place! Ogham stones were used in the 3rd-7th centuriesas a marker of a holy spot.

I'll just quote Rick for the rest of the explanation... "a hole was drilled through the top of the stone centuries ago as a place where people would come to seal a deal-- standing on the graves of their ancestors and in front of a house of God, they'd 'swear to God' by touching thumbs through this stone.... The church fell into ruin during the Reformation. As Catholic worship went underground until the early 19th century, it was never rebuilt". So here's Kevin and I 'renewing our vows' taking advantage of our opportunity to reseal our deal.

Ireland--Day 3

We left Killarney and headed for the Ring of Kerry. We did the scenic drive around the peninsula and stopped to see all of the sights. Rick (our fabulous tour guide, Rick Steves, who took us everywhere on our trip-- I'd highly recommend his books!) said we needed to leave early to beat the tour bus crowd. So, we had a quick start to the day, but we did miss all the buses, so it was relaxing not having to pass a lot of traffic on super narrow roads.

First up was Staigue Fort-- our first ring fort. Ring forts around Ireland were built between 500 BC and 300 AD. They are circular drystone walls built without mortar or cement. It's pretty amazing to think of people so long ago spending so much time and effort to gather and arrange the stones. No one knows exactly what they were used for, but probably they were used in times of war, or they lived there all the time and corralled their animals in there too. Some ring forts we went to had nothing in the center, some still had the remain of inner walls dividing up the space. Whatever they were used for, they were fun to climb on and think about people living there so long ago.
It was a pretty foggy morning so we had some spotty scenery outlooks.
We also visited a tiny chocolate factory out in the middle of the ring (off the tour bus path even, it really was in the middle of nowhere!), went to the Derrynane house and learned about Daniel O'Connell, whose as Rick says, 'tireless nonviolent agitation gained equality for Catholics 175 years ago'. I thought it was pretty interesting. I guess I hadn't really even thought about religious discrimination against Catholics, since the Catholic Church is so large now, and prominent in most of hte other countries I've visited. Silly, I know. It was a long haul for them with a lot of sacrifice involved.

One of the coolest parts of the day was our stop at the Skillig Experience Center. It was way to choppy (and expensive) to take a boat out to the islands (and too foggy to take a picture of them) but the museum nearby was one of my favorites on the trip.

The island was first inhabited by 6th century Christian monks. As you can see, the island doesn't really have any flat spots! The monks went out there and built steps all up and around the island, lived in caves, and built other dwellings. They wanted the purity of isolation to try to become closer to God. They ate fish and birds and traded feathers and eggs for wheat and candles, etc. Monks lived there for 500 years, even with harsh winter storms and Viking raids. There were other monastic settlements on other islands too. More recently, like the 1800's lighthouse keepers lived on the islands, the museum had accounts of the harsh conditions for them and their families, how they helped recover wreckage from crashes, and the isolated lives they lived. The island is supposed to be really cool to explore-- maybe on our next trip!

We stopped by two more ring forts on our way out of the ring. This sheep was having a good time climbing on the fort wall too.
The night we went to at folk concert of traditional Irish music and heard some great music. Maybe it wasn't as exciting as pub-hopping to hear the music as most do, but it got done much earlier and was still great. We heard local and not-so-local artists Pauline Scanlon singing and Donogh Hennessey on the guitar, and Eoin Duignan on the Uilleann Pipes and low whistle. The pipes were especially interesting to watch-- you can kind of see in the picture, he is playing a flute-like part while pumping the bag full of air with his elbow while holding to top of the pipes in the crook of his arm, while pressing keys on the pipes to make the dual sound. Pretty neat.

Sorry, you can hear lots of wind in the video. We were exceptionally lucky and didn't have hardly any rainy days in Ireland but we did have lots and lots of wind everywhere we went!

Ireland-- Day 2

On our B&B host's suggestion, we took a scenic route from Cashel to our next stop. This is an overlook from the Vee Road. The shadow in the picture makes it look not quite as impressive as it really was! There were a bunch of overlooks we stopped to look out at.
The castle at Cahir. This was supposed to be one of Ireland's largest and best preserved castles. It was on an island in a river. It was really interesting to wander around and think about how people lived there a long time ago.
We stopped by a working sheep farm that does tours. Unfortunately, we caught the end of the last tour of the day... in French... so we missed out on the sheep-herding demonstration and a lot of the explanation, but still saw the sheep-shearing. Interestingly enough, wool isn't worth much at all these days. They said about 60 cents per sheep per year. But they still have to shear the sheep because the wool gets so heavy it will kill them after a few years. Now they make their money mostly off producing lanolin, and selling other sheep products.

We also drove through Killarney National Park, and made a stop to take a tour of the Muckross House, a Victorian Mansion. It was pretty interesting to see the huge home, all the furnishings, and here about that part of Irish history.

I think it is so interesting that while we were in Ireland we saw remains from pretty much every time period-- ruins 5000 years old to the 8th century to the 13th century, to Victorian and Gregorian times, to brand new. So much to see on one island from such a variety of civilizations.

Ireland-- Day 1

We left Salt Lake on Sunday morning and basically spent the day flying and in the JFK airport. Our first plane trip without kids in a very long time! I read lots and I think Kevin watched 6 movies. We arrived in Ireland at 7:35am Monday morning, to begin our Ireland adventure!

We started off by getting lost (really, the only time the whole trip we got lost, to bad it was on our jet-lagged first day!)... although I think we can blame it on poor road signage, because the signs to Glendalough all took us to a freeway going the opposite direction! Kevin did an awesome job picking up fast to driving on the left side of the road. We went on some super narrow roads that had so much greenery on the sides, I felt like I was going to get whipped in the face by the bushes just about the whole time. We even saw a trimming truck going by cutting the growth back into a wall. Finally we made it.
It's an early Christian monastery, church, and graveyard from the 6th century-- our first of many ruins we saw during our 8 day trip. It was shocking to see all the green everywhere, coming from Utah.
It was a nice place to stop and stretch out legs. Unfortuantely, we didn't have any euros, so we skipped the museum and went to find a bank so we could eat lunch!

Our last stop of the day was Cashel. We bought a Heritage Pass that let us in to a bunch of sites throughout the country-- and ended up saving us a bunch of euros. We took a tour at the Rock of Cashel-- ruins of a tower, church, catherdral, and castlefrom the 12th, 13th, and 15th centuries. We had an excellent tour guide-- actually, all our tour guides in Ireland were excellent, great storytellers-- and enjoyed walking around the ruins.
We were amazed to see green fields as far as you could see! Everywhere!
We stayed the night at Cashel at a cute B&B, of course, with the 'full Irish breakfast' the next morning--eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, and white pudding. Luckily, we slept well and got mostly acclimated to the time change.