Day 7 - Tara, Trim, and Loughcrew

We had a full day trip on Sunday to three different places that are rich in Ireland's history.

The first was Trim Castle, which is located in the Boyne Valley. It's in ruins now, except for the keep, which is still in fairly decent condition. Much of our tour was in the keep and we got to climb spiral staircases, feel the chill wind of the Irish air as we moved up the floors, and be flooded with the stories our tour guide shared about what life was like for the people here. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't have a gift shop we could pop into but other than that, I'm quite excited about the experience.

The second was Loughcrew where we visited the gardens for lunch and hiked up to see the cairns. Cairns are basically tombs that were built into the side of hills and the thing I liked most about them was the links to pagan spirituality and the emphasis on using the sun to illuminate the images in the tombs. I think my favorite part was when we got to squeeze inside one and see the sun designs and criss crosses and all such nifty things.

The third was the Hill of Tara where I got to say hello from my two good Tara friends *waves at Mezz and IO* It was a lovely place and there were sheep everywhere :) I think though that its important to see the audio visual before the tour because you get to see the aerial view of the ridges and truly take in the power of their designs. The tomb of the hostages was probably my favorite.

For dinner last night, I joined a group who was heading out for Italian and it was delicious. I had marscapone, gorgonzola, and spinach ravioli. And then I headed out with my two wonderfully crazy friends to the pubs where I taught a Czechoslovakian man how to belly dance. LOL. It was almost funnier than watching my boyfriend do his white boy dance.

Day 7 - Tara, Trim, and Loughcrew

We had a full day trip on Sunday to three different places that are rich in Ireland's history.

The first was Trim Castle, which is located in the Boyne Valley. It's in ruins now, except for the keep, which is still in fairly decent condition. Much of our tour was in the keep and we got to climb spiral staircases, feel the chill wind of the Irish air as we moved up the floors, and be flooded with the stories our tour guide shared about what life was like for the people here. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't have a gift shop we could pop into but other than that, I'm quite excited about the experience.

The second was Loughcrew where we visited the gardens for lunch and hiked up to see the cairns. Cairns are basically tombs that were built into the side of hills and the thing I liked most about them was the links to pagan spirituality and the emphasis on using the sun to illuminate the images in the tombs. I think my favorite part was when we got to squeeze inside one and see the sun designs and criss crosses and all such nifty things.

The third was the Hill of Tara where I got to say hello from my two good Tara friends *waves at Mezz and IO* It was a lovely place and there were sheep everywhere :) I think though that its important to see the audio visual before the tour because you get to see the aerial view of the ridges and truly take in the power of their designs. The tomb of the hostages was probably my favorite.

For dinner last night, I joined a group who was heading out for Italian and it was delicious. I had marscapone, gorgonzola, and spinach ravioli. And then I headed out with my two wonderfully crazy friends to the pubs where I taught a Czechoslovakian man how to belly dance. LOL. It was almost funnier than watching my boyfriend do his white boy dance.