Today we start our adventures outside Dublin!   The two days in Dublin were wonderful and we did a full 30km of walking.

We headed back to Dublin Airport on the AirLink bus using our Leap Pass.....back to where we started about 48 hours ago.

We had pre-booked a rental car months ago.  Renting a car in Ireland is different than anywhere else in the world.....except Israel. We are not quite sure but in Ireland and Israel, credit cards do not cover for Collision Damage Waver(CDW).  So the insurance has to be bought from the rental company, so we bought everything, and it is expensive,

We rented a Volkswagen Golf....we're thankful we didn't get anything bigger as many of the non-highway roads that we went on were (1) rather narrow & (2) didn't have shoulders....not a great combination.  Greg is our designated driver, having previously driven on the opposite side of the road with a standard.  
First and only tourist attraction today is Newgrange.  It's about 110 kms north of Dublin.....as seen by Greg on Ancient Aliens.

So Newgrange is a burial mound which is about 5000 years old, this makes it older than the Pyramids at Giza and Stonehenge.  There is much speculation why it was build and by whom.  There were fragmentary remains of five individuals found inside and this was only determined recently as DNA testing came into being.   The main stones at the entrance and inside are carved with spiral carvings that are said to possibly signify the sun, as the entrance is lined up so the sun shines inside on the shortest day of the year.  I thing the spirals represent  wormholes, but that could just be me.  We got to go into the central chamber of the mound.  One had to bend over and sometimes walk stooped sideways to almost crawl in, in almost total darkness, not for the claustrophobic.   The central chamber was quite tight with about 15 of us standing shoulder to shoulder inside but it was very interesting.  Glad we got to see one of my Ancient Alien destinations.  Machu Picchu next.  :)

Next we pursued some Malnyk family exploration.  Greg's mom's (nee Shirley Irwin) grandparents were originally from Tandragee, Northern Ireland, just Southwest of Belfast.  Currently, it is a small bustling little town of 3000, and unbeknownst to us before we arrived, is where the Tayto Chip factory is based - we saw lots of Tayto potato chips in the stores - next time we come we will have to book one of their tours at the factory in Tayto Castle.  To commemorate our visit, we took a few.pictures in town around what looked like a very major and old church, St. Mark's Church before carrying on.

We contacted and made arrangements before arriving in Ireland to meet Greg's third cousin Sam and his lovely wife Angela.  They lived in Tandragee for many years and now live about 20 minutes down the road in Lurgan.  We shared a wonderful home cooked meal and wonderful conversation.  We (Eve mostly) found out Sam was the minister at St. Mark's Church in Tandragee before retiring.  As well through many of the many notes and pictures they showed us,  we found out Greg's great grandparents were married at the same church in 1898.  Amazing we picked that church to photograph in Tandragee!  It was a most enjoyable visit but we forgot until after we left that we should have gotten a picture together! :-(

We booked Banoge House Bed & Breakfast for our accommodations tonight.  We picked it months ago based on its location, close to Tandragee & Belfast.  We arrived to find a beautiful old house now a B&B, greeted by the owner John & his son David.  We got a lovely room with a unique bed and many antique decor items and a huge bathroom ensuite.  We were delighted to see the huge Monkey Puzzle tree, like the ones we admired on Vancouver Island, in front of the Banoge House as well as the lovely gardens on the property.

A very comfortable sleep to get us ready for the next day.