Our mission today was Giants Causeway, our main reason for making the trek to Northern Ireland. The sight of those pillars, some concave and some convex, and all so symmetrical was pretty amazing. The pillars are multiple different colors, depending on their exposure to the sea when the tides come in. You can also find sea creature filled tide pools in the tops of some of the pillars.
When we left the causeway we debated whether to head for Belfast or try to make it to Bru na Boinne, our intended destination on the day we instead spent dealing with the rental car. We were concerned that we may not be allowed into Bru na Boinne because they only allow a certain number of visitors per day and it would be well into the afternoon before we would arrive. We decided to chance it and we were lucky that tourist numbers seem to be way down because there was no issues with us getting tickets.
Our car rental agreement called for the car to be returned empty rather than full so we spent the last couple of days trying to gauge how much fuel we would need to allow us to coast into the rental lot on fumes. We decided another £10 should do it and that would require a gas stop before the border to spend our last 20 British Pounds. We decided on £10 for gas and £10 for ??? After filling the tank we hurried into the store to shop. We very in a hurry because we wanted to arrive in time to get our tickets for the burial sites. If you had 5 minutes and $15.00 to spend in a mini mart, what would you buy? We chose 2 bottles of water, a tiny container of milk, a basket of tomatoes a couple of apples and three giant Cadbury chocolate bars. Yum. We were like two little kids in a candy store trying to add up how much everything cost so we could spend every last pence. We walked out with about 28 pence. Not bad and we giggled our way through one of the delicious candy bars as we rushed to our next adventure.
Bru na Boinne is the name of a neolithic necropolis with multiple ancient burial areas. We were able to visit Newgrange and Knowth two very different burial sites. Constructed around 3200 BC, Newgrange is older than the pyramids in Egypt by 600 years, and older than Stonehenge by over 1,000 years. We toured both sites and decided that we both unexpectedly enjoyed Knowth more. It is smaller and more personal and contains a huge portion of the ancient art in all of Europe. The art mainly consists of rock carvings on hundreds of 3-10 ton boulders. Newgrange was interesting for the opportunity to go inside the passage tunnel and experience what it was like to be inside during the winter solstice, a date of great significance to the pagan people who built Newgrange.
After our visit to the tombs we headed toward the Dublin airport where we returned our car and took the city bus to our hotel. Dinner was a picnic in our hotel room with the mission of finishing up the last of our groceries.
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