A lovely quiet day

Saturday, March 05, 2016
Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
A sleep helped us to recover from the long day yesterday and after a lovely breakfast at the B&B we headed off for the drive from Dublin to Belfast. The day was beautiful. Clear blue skies and freezing cold. The lady at the B&B told us that yesterday morning they woke up to a white world. It had snowed overnight. Unfortunately for us, the snow had melted and all we had was the 0 temperatures.

The Newgrange Monument was on the way so we called in for Kerri who tells me she's living vicariously through me! lol ... The monument is around 5200 years old so it's been around for 'a while'. We went to the wrong entrance to start with and had to drive about 15 minutes to be about a kilometre from the entrance. We had a guide who thought he was funny but he wasn't :) This monument has been rebuilt from all original quartz and granite from the site. Kerri, if you are reading this... I have a tiny piece of Newgrange for you shhhhh :) We spent an hour or so wandering around after squeezing through a tiny passageway into the mound to look at this amazing roof structure that hasn't been touched in millennia. There is nothing holding the roof up except the stones that lean on each other. Not bad engineering for neolithic people. They think it was some kind of tomb as there was the cremated remains of 5 individuals found when they excavated. Unfortunately over the last two hundred years people have come in and carved their names into the stone (and the date). Some of the dates are early 1800s. Everything has been left as it was... people still wrecking stuff all those years ago .

We then took to the car again and headed off for Belfast. It was a leisurely hour and a half drive. We found our lodgings for the night and headed off into Belfast city just after dark to find a pub that had traditional music. We found one called the John Hewitt and they had a group of about 10 musicians playing flutes, fiddles, guitars and some other instruments??? Anyhow, the music was great. We met a lovely Irish couple whose son had bought them into Belfast for Mother's Day. He was taking them on a pub crawl!!! Nice son... just for your information girls; when Mother's Day happens at home, I don't wish to go on a pub crawl! Thank you...

Our room is lovely and we are looking forward to some much needed sleep. Why does one get really tired just sitting in a car and driving? Must be old age. Off to the Titanic tomorrow...


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Comments

Ted
2016-03-07

Swoon!!!

I'm fanning myself and trying not to squeal - thank you so much for dropping in and please don't lose that little piece of Newgrange for me! I'd love love love it!

Xxxx

2025-02-06

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