I slept like a rock, thank goodness. We were up bright and early for a delicious Irish breakfast. I love all the hearty things they have like porridge and granola and yogurt and bacon and eggs, and then weird things too like fried tomato halves and baked beans.
Our first stop of the day was St. Patrick's cathedral. We got there in time for the 9:30 prayer service, which was mostly sung by the choirboys. There were certain parts of the service where we were supposed to sit and stand, but we didn't catch unto that until about half way through, and as we were the only ones there it didn't seem to matter much.
After the service was over, we had a private tour by a guide named Ralph. It was very good and we got to see all kinds of monuments and things and hear lots of historical facts, most of which escape my head right now except for weird little snippets: monument to a man tortured by the Protestants by pouring boiling oil into his boots, regimental flags hung up in the chapels until they fall to pieces, Jonathan Swift would run up and down the bellfry stairs for exercise, lots about St. Patrick and the guide trying to clear up our confusion over whether he was Catholic or Protestant and how the cathedral was Protestant in such a heavily catholic country.
The picture below is a stained glass window donated by the Guiness family. At the bottom it says "I was thirsty and you gave me drink." I thought that was funny.
We then drove for about 45 minutes to the Boyne Valley, famous for all its ancient ruins and archeological sights. The Hill of Tara is there, where the first kings of Ireland lived, and also Newgrange, which I was particularly interested in seeing. It's located in a whole complex of Neolithic monuments called Bru na Boinne, and we weren't able to see Newgrange itself, but the one called Knowth instead. It was awesome.
They are burial mounds built by people so ancient we know pretty much nothing about them, where they came from, how they lived, and how they were smart enough and able to build these amazing structures complete with lunar alignments. It's so intriguing to me.
Our next stop was close by and was also awesome. One of the ladies on our tour did some family research and discovered that her ancestors had a castle in Ireland called Castle Roche, and we were going to be close to it, so Samuel Chestnutt added it to our itinerary, and we went to see her castle!
It's in ruins now, in a field and was really beautiful. We all turned into little kids, scurrying through the grass, scrambling over rocks, peering through ancient battlements...just us and the castle ruins and some picturesque sheep and cows. How cool is that?
Our last stop of the day was called Monasterboice, and early Christian settlement, famous today for it's Celtic crosses, the largest and oldest in Ireland. They're just sitting out there in the middle of a cemetery, so after a quick look, we were back on the bus and heading for the medieval town of Carlingford, our stop for the night.
We checked into the Ghan Guesthouse, which is lovely. Mother and I are staying in a luxurious room in the converted barn.
We had enough time for a quick nap before walking down to the local pub which also happens to be in an old castle, which also happens to have a dungeon, and guess where we ate? Yes, it was burgers and chicken tenders in the dungeon for us! The food wasn't as good as the night before, but the location was certainly memorable!
We have a leisurely morning scheduled for tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to some extra sleep and another delecious Irish breakfast.
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