Day #3 in Dublin was supposed to be another walk around Dublin day. But, like every other tourist we met in town, we couldn't get out of Dodge fast enough. Dublin is a busy, noisy, graffiti-filled, dirty city . . . not unlike New York, but grubbier. The "Irish Tiger" economic boom is over and Ireland has reassumed its traditional role of the poor man of Europe, just ahead of Greece. So, instead of waiting until today when we had our rental car, we decided to take a day tour (and if you read our Vietnam blog, you know how we love bus tours!) to see the archeological sites to the north of Dublin.

The bus tour turned out to be quite nice, actually . First, there were only 15 cattle in the bus, including five "ancients" who were quickly left in the dust by our guide. They, apparently, had not read the part about "good walking shoes required" or the part about "walking several miles on uneven terrain." According to Dayna's FitBit, we did, in fact, walk a little over 10 miles and the equivalent of 175 flights of stairs.  

Our first stop was the Hill of Tara, an ancient site where early kings were crowned. They say you can see up to 25% of Ireland from the Hill. We could hardly see our bus, it was foggy!

A brief but nice stop at the Bective Abbey ruin let us crawl around on steps that could have been, but weren't, trod on by early English kings visiting and raping Ireland in the 1200s.  

Then on to Trim Castle, ironically located in the town of Trim! The castle was a Norman stronghold. The Vikings were being pests at the time so the Irish "kings" asked the Normans for help . Which, looking back at history, was equivalent to asking Hitler to protect you from Stalin! But, it was the Norman's turn to stick it to the Irish for a couple of hundred years.

We had one more stop to make before having a late lunch. We were off to Loughcrew which turned out to be a great stop. It is an ancient burial ground from around the time of the Egyptian pyramids. The guide just stopped at the little visitor center and dropped off the "ancients" not even giving them an opportunity to fall out of the hike. And it was just that. Up a huge hill that rewarded us with beautiful views (the fog was lifting) and some remarkable history. Unlike some really touristy stops on other tours, we were mostly by ourselves and our guide had the key to get us through the gate and into the tombs. Best stop of the day!

A good lunch at a small hotel in a very small town where the guide was related to half the people, and then we were off to the last two stops .

First, Monasterboice, a medieval monastic site. A few building ruins, a round tower, and two of the most ancient Celtic crosses. It was more interesting than it sounds, really. 

Our last stop was in the town of Drogheda to see St. Peter's Catholic Church where we were treated to the view of Sir Oliver Plunkett's severed head. He had the bad judgement to oppose Cromwell's English army with insufficient forces. He was hung and quartered; the head apparently is considered a spare part in that ceremony and was "rescued" by friends. (Look, Honey, what I got at this afternoon's hanging festival! May I keep it?) We made a quick stop in the cemetery at St. Peter's Anglican Church to see some cadaver headstones. See picture below. Very odd why anyone would do that.

Back to Dublin for a nice dinner at The Shack in the Temple Bar area of downtown. Temple Bar is a very trendy restaurant, bar and nightclub area that caters to the young crowd . The bars open early and stay open late and, as a result, gives it a slight vomit odor as you walk the streets. Kind of like Bourbon Street In New Orleans. A nice walk home along Grafton Street, an upscale shopping area where we finally got a SIM card for Dayna's phone, finished the day. Dayna now has an Irish phone #!!