In Kilkenny

Odd to post a photo of a car off the top for sure. But the lush green countryside, the friendly people and tidy towns and villages have been a backdrop to the struggle to master righthand drive, manual transmission and backcountry roads where Smartcars would be perfect.

We picked up our car at 6:00 am in Dublin after an all night flight, heading north for the Stone Age monuments on the Boyne River ( Brú na Bóinne in Gaelic, Ireland's second language.) The car was steamy with Bob's curses as the car stalled or my pointers that we were in the wrong lane. It's terrifying when you lose focus for a minute and come to onto what you think is the wrong side of the road. After two six hour days on narrow roads bordered by hedgerows and rock, we're in a groove.

      Newgrange

        The Passage Tomb of Newgrange

Newgrange, a UNESCO World Heritage was built 5,200 years ago (around 3,200 B.C.). So it's older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza. It's a large circular mound 85 meters in diameter and 13.5 meters high with a 19 meter stone passageway and chambers inside. The enormous boulders inside and outside are engraved with magalithic symbols that experts think were carved by people in a trancelike state.

   Hard to see the concentric circles on the large lower boulders.

Although Newgrange is called a passage tomb, Archaeologists now see the monument as an ancient temple, a place of astrological, spiritual, religious and ceremonial significance, much like our cathedrals today, a place of worship and burial for dignitaries.

It took us two hours to find our B and B the first night, not just because we'd been up 40 hours by then but because the roads aren't signed and housed not numbered. Can you imagine? A fruit market vendor said, "Why would we need names? We know where we are and who is where." Well, I thought what about the poor sods without a clue?

First night at Coolakay B and B near Enniskerry. No street number.

An Irish postbox.

        A spanking newly thatched roof.

     

       Many, many stone buildings here.

                    and vines

                   and vistas.

Now we're setting out for the Kilkenny castle built in 1195 by the Normans. More later. it's very chilly here -- so different from the steamy air at home. Be well.