Nice Mounds!

 

 Today I visited two Neolithic mounds North of Dublin that were constructed sometime around 3200 BCE. The older one, Newgrange has been almost completely restored to it's original condition. It was excavated in the 1960's and of course had fallen into disrepair and built on top of in the middle ages for forts and lookout towers. Even a middle age farmhouse used some of the stones.

    Both large mounds have stone lined tunnels that are aligned with winter solstice and predate Stone Henge by a fair amount. There is even middle age graffiti inside Newgrange etched into the walls of the inner sanctum. 

Sun would create a line on the background rock

    The outer circumference is lined with large boulders, many of which have patterns etched into them with spirals and shapes. Since this predates metal tools, they were etched by using hard stones such as quartz.

Notice the etchings at the top and center

Spirals everywhere

    When we went into the museum, they compared the spirals of Newgrange to those of the Anasazi Indians in America.

NewGrange ~3200 BCE

Anasazi ~200-1300 AD

    What's also interesting is that the tunnels in one mound are in the shape of a cross which would put it 3200 years before Christ.

    MaldaHide Castle Tour:

    Late this afternoon, I dropped into Maldahide castle which was built by an English nobleman by the name of Talbot in the 1600's. Much like Hearst Castle in California, it started with modest beginnings and was added on to and added onto. It stayed in the family until 1972 when the family member woman who inherited it could'nt afford the 50% of the value tax, so she sold it to the local county and moved to Maldahide Australia.  

    

    The tour guide gave us several interesting ideas about where modern colloquialisms came from. Apparently plasterers drank heavily while doing their job, so the term "getting plastered" came from this. 

    Women would gather after dinner in a room with the fireplace, but apparently cosmetics at the time contained wax, so if they went to the fireplace to warm themselves, they would take and hold a face shield so their face would'nt run and so this gave us "saving face". 

    Finally, there was only a single bathtub in the house, so the Lord would take the bath and the Lady the second using the same bathwater and so on down the line. Babies were the last to get bathed, so the term "Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater" came into being.

    With all going well, I'll be back Friday evening, so hope to see you all in the hood...

Dave

Not New...

 

    Jersey that is...We are finishing our stay in Jersey, the British ex-colony Chanel Island. It's been interesting for Bridget who worked here for years at the General Hospital during a pivotal time. 

Bridget's old apartment

Apartment above Charity Shop

Where she worked in ER

    We did a bit of sightseeing going to underground tunnels built by the Germans who took over the island without a battle in WWII in 1941. The Brits decided not to defend it as they had pressing issues at home. The tunnels were built as an underground hospital for recovering solders who really didn't want to be underground so it was not used much. 

Entrance to Tunnels

    Then hoped on the local bus to a quiet port on the far side of the island where we lunched on nice seafood. As we traveled, it was amazing to see the huge tides that I mentioned before. I mean like 40-50 ft differences between high and low which exposes lots of boats, land and rocks.

Low tide leaving boats on the bottom of port

    We are on the last leg(s) of our journey here. We are off to Dublin for the final days before coming home on Friday for Dave and Tuesday for Bridget. I'm doing a bit of history in seeing New Grange, an old Celtic Mound/ Temple North of Dublin for a day and Bridget is heading back to home house in Abbeyknockmoy for a final visit. 

https://www.newgrange.com/

 

A few fun snapshots around the town:

Notice the first pink dress for those that got a head start

Fingers pointing the way around

Bridget and Dave

The tide is high....

 

    Today was Mont Saint Michel day. Our host for the B&B, Xavier said to go early and boy was he right. 

Our historic B&B in St Malo

Compact Bathroom/Sink

   

     Both Bridget and I had wanted to see it for years and the excitement as we parked and could see it in the distance, then again as the bus dropped us off a few minutes walk to the gate. You no longer have to cross the tidal sand bridge. The tides in this area of Normandy are huge. Sometimes 20 feet or higher. You can see maybe a half mile out of sand from high tide. 

 

    Even though we arrived about an hour after opening, it was packed narrow cobblestone streets with everything you would expect in a tourist destination; pizza, candy, ice cream which took from the experience, but you could help but be amazed at the history and the structure. 

Historic Markings in the Stone

    We stopped for lunch down the beach and there were these sand racers taking advantage of the huge low tide to race up and down the beach. They were giving a class of using them and I wanted to join, but seemed like they were already underway, so I took a pass. For sure, in the future....

    We transitioned this afternoon to Jersey by Ferry from Saint Malo. Jersey is the British isle off the coast for France along with Gurnsey the other channel island. Bridget worked here for a few years in the hospital and we started dating while she was working here as well, making calls to each other after work. It's a bit of walk down memory lane for her and my first time here. 

Later Kids;

DB

Rennes & Saint Malo

 

    It was a quick stay in Rennes as we got in last night and got to hotel late. It turned out that they had reprogrammed all the keys for the hotel and most were not working. Oh boy...waiting in the lobby for an hour after traveling all day from Ireland to sort it out.

    We booked into a traditional French restaurant last night and ate outdoors. It was great! Duck for me and Lamb for Bridget. 

    It turns out that Rennes is known for two things. Crepes and old 17th century wood timbered houses. We didn't partake of the crepes, but wandered the town this morning and saw some of them and snapped pictures of the town. I caught Bridget in the Sun as it was coming up this morning.

    We train'ed to Saint Malo today to see it as it was an important beach town during the Allies invasion of WWII. About 80% of the town was destroyed, but we are staying in the old walled part or town in a building that wasn't touched and is original to the 18th century. Apparently the house has a storied history being a house of women courtesans who served the rich. Later it became a lower class brothel and then became a rooming house where many famous American jazz people stayed such as Josephine Baker. 

    The old, walled section is quite nice, but full of tourists on this holiday weekend here. Hopefully it will quiet down tomorrow as it will be a Monday here. Speaking of tourists, we are heading to Mont Saint-Michel tomorrow. it's about 45 minutes away and we are hoping to go early to avoid the crowds. 

https://en.normandie-tourisme.fr/unmissable-sites/the-mont-saint-michel/

 

Saint Malo Wall and Port

    I've been having fun wandering around and snapping pictures with my iPhone and then editing them into B&W in an app called Snapseed. Here are some of then from the last couple days:

 

Dave & Bridget

The Emerald Isle...

 

Historic Galway

 

    Welcome to Ireland. There is a reason why it's so green! Yes, rain showers almost daily but they are usually short lived. 

    Apologies for the radio silence, we have been huddled up mostly in Abbeyknockmoy, Bridget's hometown outside Galway in the countryside. There are two bars, two undertakers, a gas station, a pizza place and a Chinese takeout place along with the Catholic church here. Bridget's family house is where we are staying with Ollie (Oliver) her younger brother, with Kevin, the families youngest next door with his wife and kids and another brother is 10 minutes away with younger sister Noreen about an hour from here. 

    I got out on an adventure yesterday to Aran island just off the coast from Galway. It's not very big, maybe 2 miles wide by 10 miles long and it's pretty rustic with lots of rock walls and sparse housing. Ireland has heavily promoted this as a tourist destination, but there is really nothing to see per se. That doesn't stop ferries loaded with hundreds coming over for wool sweater shops and fish and chips in the harbor. There are four bike rental places with hundreds of bikes of all flavors to rent for the day. I was one of them. I rode to one end of the island and then turned around and rode to the other. It was good to get out all day in the fresh air even if there wasn't much to see. 

 

 

Bridget had a relaxing day in Connemara where there are small villages and the Abbey/Castle Kylemore while I was on Aran. 

    We are off to France tomorrow for a couple days to a small town called Rennes. I'm actually not exactly sure why there, but I think we may see Mont Saint-Michael off of Saint Malo and then go on to Jersey Island where Bridget worked as a nurse there for a while before coming to the U.S.

D et B