Ireland and Great Britain 2015 - Northern Ireland 5/24/15

HOLY COW!!!! WE'RE IN IRELAND!  Arriving at Dublin Airport. 5/24/15. Aunt Tracy got a little emotional.

 
First stop was, well, getting lost.  We needed two vehicles in order to pack the six of us and our gear, I drove the 1st car and Dr Uncle Bob drove the 2nd.  We pulled out of the airport onto the motorway... and lost the 2nd car at our first exit.  Luckily we had Janell with us, she and Tracy texted and called back and forth to convince them to just pull off to the first petrol station they could find.  They texted us the address, which we plugged in to the Sat-Nav, and a mere hour later we were all back together.  We had taken an off-the-beaten-path/scenic return (a feature of the Sat-Nav?) with several close calls with lorries, hedges and absurdly high speed curves.  We all went in to the petrol station to grab some snacks and hit the road again.

To the burial mounds at Knowth and Newgrange!

Inside the mound at Knowth, the chambers ran the length of the mound.

Atop one of the mounds looking over the area.

The fearless foursome, atop the mound.

Many of the rocks around the mounds are carved with intricate designs. Favorite quote from the museum... "In general there is a very strong case for the argument in favor of some at least of the motifs in megalithic art being derived from altered states of consciousness." -Elizabeth Shee Twohig
Basically, "what do the symbols mean?" "We don't know, they were probably stoned."

OH! Cute!

The Dark Hedges, on our way to Heathfield Farm.

Cool, dead, moss-covered tree at Heathfield Farm.

Under construction, a theme of our holiday.  Half of Great Britain is covered in scaffolding. The house at Heathfield is approximately 200 years old. This was one of our favorite B&Bs of the entire trip.  A great place to start. Heather (the hostess) was lovely and made a great Irish breakfast both mornings.  Everyone was shocked at the amount of food. We didn't stop to eat again until 5-6 after Heather's full cooked breakfast. Her accent was also a wonderful welcome to the country.  Tracy, Bob and Grandma couldn't understand a thing she said, but they smiled and laughed and had a wonderful 2 days.

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