Ward Words

As Kelly promised, here is a post about the first day (really two days) of our trip to Ireland.

We left on Saturday, March 15 and flew from Houston to Chicago, Chicago to NYC, and NYC to Dublin, arriving on the morning of Sunday, March 16 in Ireland. The first two flights went smoothly and both were about 30 minutes early in arriving. Well, mostly smoothly. While boarding the plane from Chicago to JFK, the pilot asked Kelly if she had the week off of school, insinuating she was, oh...12 years old. Kelly told him she worked in a school and received the ever handy reply: "You'll appreciate looking young when you're older." I told her she should have asked if she could sit in the cockpit.

We got off of the plane at JFK about 7:40pm and our flight didn't leave until 9:40pm. We figured we had plenty of time, so we changed some money and checked in with Aer Lingus. While waiting in line at security, I heard on the overhead announcements the Last Call for Aer Lingus 106 - our flight! It wasn't even 9:00 yet and they were about to close the gate for boarding. I noticed our boarding passes said the gate closed at 8:55pm (thanks for the warning Aer Lingus counter agent!). We started to mildly freak out as the line did not move fast. We finally made it through, and by now Last Call had been announced 5 or 6 times. We stopped to stretch out and then sprinted for our gate, which naturally was the last one in the terminal. We made it, out of breath, and got on the plane. We were so close to missing our flight other passengers were commenting on our luck. Kelly was like "Whatever - we stretched!"

The flight was 5 hours and we arrived in Ireland just before 8am. Saturday pretty much seemed to not exist. Kelly and I did not check luggage, so after customs we bought a map of Ireland and caught the Hertz shuttle to pick up our rental. The car was a Kia Rio (I thought the trip was doomed at that point) and had "scars" all along the left side of the car (US driver's side, Ireland's passenger side). All of the damage was previously noted so we began our adventures driving on the wrong side of the road.

Our bed and breakfast was only 4.9 kilometers away. 58 kilometers later, we arrived (thanks for nothing Google Maps!). It turns out Ireland is not a big fan of street names, but instead prints the road's destination (ie nearest next city). Things got slightly easier when we figured this out.

The B&B was called Glendowan and was just outside of Dublin near the airport. We dropped our bags off and headed for some sightseeing. We first drove to Bru Na Boine, the valley of the Boyne River. This is where the Newgrange passage tomb is located. The passage tomb was built between 3300 and 2900 BC. The original paleolithic stones are still present inside the structure. Builders of the tomb had to bring stones weighing up to 6 tons from 45 to 60 kilometers away. Without cars!. The tomb's entrance at some point had collapsed, thus perfectly preserving its contents until its rediscovery. The exterior was reconstructed using all original stones, leaving it looking as it must have when it was in use. The entrance stone, and many stones inside the tomb, had the original carvings still visible. Of particular note was the tri-spiral, or triskel, which has become a sort of Irish national symbol. At the entrance to the tomb is a "roof box" (read rectangular hole). You enter the tomb and when you reach the end of the narrow, short passage, you have walked vertically 8 feet. At the winter solstice (and on 3 days on either side of it), sunlight enters the roof box about 9am, casting a sliver of light across the floor of the pitch black tomb and for the next 17 minutes gradually fills the space, before leaving the tomb dark again. It is posited that the ancients thought that in this process the sun took the souls of their dead away. The phenomenon was demonstrated for us with electric light and was quite cool. The visitor center holds a raffle and winners get to come and be in the tomb on the winter solstice to witness the event themselves, provided it's not cloudy.

After Newgrange, we drove to Trim. Or tried to drive to Trim. We got lost, which came to be a common occurrence. Nevertheless, we arrived in Trim while it was still light outside. The main attraction, Trim castle, had already given it's last scheduled tour for the day, but we were still able to walk around outside and take photos and read signs. Trim castle was built by a Norman knight named Hugh de Lacy in 1176. It is the largest castle of the era in Ireland and was famously featured in Braveheart.

By now, it was early evening and we were jet lagged and exhausted. We made our way back to our B&B to freshen up and then headed out again to get some dinner. We ended up eating Indian food (which was quite fantastic) and returned to the bed and breakfast where we met the B&B owner's dogs, one of which was small, with really short legs, but was Wembley's personality doppleganger. Kelly loved him. We headed to our room, showered, and went to sleep. The next day is St. Patrick's Day!

We have uploaded Saturday and Sunday's pictures to Picasa. Click on the picture below to see them! (I think the best way to see them is with the slideshow).