Our two days in Dublin helped get us oriented and gave our bodies a chance to adjust to local time, but then our adventure really began. We rented our car at the airport and headed out on our grand tour. On the left side of the road. With the gear shift on the left. And the signs all in both english and Gaelic.
Our first stop after we rented the car - or at least the first stop that wasn't driver stalling the car while looking for the gear shift - was half an hour north of Dublin off the M1. The Brú na Bóinne refers to an area along the River Boyne that contains several ancient passage tombs, the best known of which are Newgrange and Knowth.
We were able to see Newgrange in the distance, but the tours were booked for hours, so we went to Knowth, which is nearby. While Newgrange seems to consist primarily of one very large, mound, Knowth is a complex of many mounds (each a tomb with internal passages). One is very large, while the rest are smaller, but perhaps older.
It wasn't their size or complexity that struck me the most. It was that these structures go back to 3300BC (give or take a few years) and predate both the Pyramids and Stonehenge.
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