Day 7: Ireland- Newgrange celebrity and the Titanic

Greetings from Ireland! The Lewis/Espelage family are reunited once more in Ireland and it has been quite the long day for us. So let's get started.

It started for Jeff and I at 4:30am because it's never quick and easy getting to an airport and flying somewhere. No, you gotta allot time for transportation (we used the Edinburgh tram which still reminds us of the Cincinnati Bell Connector), and then security (what a mess, even in Scotland) and then making your way across entire terminals because of course they put the cheap flights at the very end.  Thankfully it was a quick and uneventful flight back to Dublin, where we met up with my parents, Jim and Mary, once more. Now this blog title can start to make sense!

Goodbye Scotland!

Our first stop was only about a half hour away and built in 3200 BC: Newgrange. That's older than Stonehenge and even the pyramids! It was really neat and reminds me of a much larger and cooler version of our Indian Mounds. Much larger! And the stones outside and inside have mysterious engravings on them. Also unlike the Indian burial mounds, inside is a stone chamber that small tour groups can enter into to marvel at the construction of passageways that create a cruciform shape, and a dome above your head with huge slabs of rock. It's amazing to think that something like this has been around for thousands and thousands of years and hasn't crumbled and stays bone dry.  Not too much is know about the meaning of the engraved symbols or what else the monument was used for (for worshiping as well as burial grounds, is their best guess) but the coolest thing is what happens for 17 minutes once a year. On the first day of the winter's solstice, the sunlight comes through a top window and beams directly into the center of the chamber and lights up where they probably placed the bodies of their dead. 

I have earrings with this design on them, even brought them with me on vacation, but didn't wear them! Aaarrrggggghh!

We also got to meet a celebrity while there! Well, not Hollywood famous or anything, but Newgrange famous, for sure! Local author and photographer Anthony Murphy was out flying his drone this summer when he discovered a never-before-seen henge near Newgrange.  He was part of our group on today's tour but only as an observer. He was actually quite shy about his newfound stardom. He must be an expert on Newgrange because he's been featured on the History Channel about the henge before. This summer's discovery, made possible due to the hot summer, droughts, and latest drone technology, has brought him back into the spotlight!

See his drone video here.

See the History Channel bit about Newgrange, featuring Murphy, here.

Read his interview with NPR about his discovery this summer, here.

Not part of Newgrange, but maybe an ancient homage to a neolithic duck??

It sounds like a lot, but the tour was only about an hour long, and we were back in our car and continued our journey northward, stopping next in Belfast where the new Titanic museum is. You've heard of the Titanic, right? That boat where two people from different social statuses fell in love and then when the ship sinks she pushes him off the floating door and keeps the jewelry? Yeah, entire museum dedicated to that. Ha ha, I kid! I kid! I wonder how many people think that movie was fiction. I know it came out at just the right age where when I became fixated on something I would read the heck out of it. Not to mention the best PC game I have ever played was Titanic: Adventure out of Time which came out around the same time but had nothing to do with the movie. I think I know that ship's layout and map like the back of my hand because of that game. ANYWAY, the museum is in Belfast, which is where the ship was built, and it's 4 floors and 9 galleries of information all about the history of Belfast, Harland and Wolff shipyard, the building, launching, sinking and rescue of the Titanic, and tons more. There were some pretty hefty crowds, even late on a weekday, so it was hard to see everything, but it really is an interesting museum!

Anyone who played the game would understand why I found interest in this Turkish Bath.

Finally, we headed to our B&B, The Crockatinney, which is about an hour and a half away in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, the weather, which my parents have said was sunny all last week, is crazy windy out and it's supposed to be rainy and windy tomorrow. We'll just have to wait and see how bad it gets. Jeff and I did get to walk around the area before it got too dark. The view here is amazing. Like, the best I've ever had at a lodging, ever. So we went around and took some photos. 

The view from the backyard of our B&B! 0_0

We even made some new friends!

Nearby is a place called Kinbane Castle and it looks so cool  and is only a 10 minute walk from our B&B. But we aren't stupid tourists, and with the intense winds and the fact the sun was setting and we were the only people there, we decided to leave going down the steep stairs for another day. Still, awesome views!

Meanwhile, my parents had been out doing some laundry while we explored, but we all met back up in Crockatinney's common room, had some tea and desserts, and called it a night. Keep your fingers crossed that the weather holds out for us and perhaps we'll get to see the Giant's Causeway and the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. If it's too windy, that's a big pass on the rope bridge. >_<