On our last day in Ireland, we visited the Neolithic monuments at
Bru na Bóinne. Until we arrived there, I was
completely clueless about this site, but it turns out to pre-date the Egyptian
pyramids, and contains the largest known collection of
megalithic carved stones. Access to the area is controlled to preserve it and unfortunately, visitors are not allowed insi
de the tombs (except for one
small chamber in Knowth). Still, it was
pretty interesting, especially since we were given history and explanation of
the structures by an utterly charming and handsome archeologist (really, what a
cutie). The downside to this visit was
that it was freakin' cold. We had
uncharacteristically cold weather for our entire Ireland tour but at Brú na
Bóinne, the relentless wind made the low temperatures feel worse. Even the cute archeologist was not winning
enough to keep us from scurrying back to the bus.
After
this visit we drove to nearby
Drogheda and settled into our hotel. We were scheduled for a walking tour of
Drogheda in the afternoon, but I could not bring myself to go back out in the
cold weather. I later discovered I was
not the only one -- most of us spent the afternoon indoors packing, shopping, or
(in my case) using the hotel gym. Later,
we met up for a farewell dinner which was had in the hotel 'pub,' with
entertainment by a group of really, really old musicians. Really old.
They played sitting down.
Thus
endeth our tour. We fled to the airport
in shifts the following morning, and I arrived home 20 hours later, exhausted,
Stand
by within a few days for another blog post with some final thoughts.
The really old musicians: here and here.
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