2nd Day: Arrival in Belfast, trip to New Grange and Knowth, dinner in Belfast

The VIM team arrived in Dublin in the morning, met up with the Aldrich’s, and after a quick meal in Dublin Airport:

were off to the first stop: Newgrange or Bru Na Bóinne. We had time to tour the museum and shop and take in some of the history before our tour of Knowth, the largest passage tomb in Europe. A nice walk taking us over the Boyne River, past cows and wildflowers ended in the short bus ride to our destination.

Knowth is an impressive passage tomb with one third of all known Neolithic artwork on it’s large stones encircling the mound. The second passage tomb visited was Newgrange where visitors are allowed to enter the passage and experience what it would be like to be in the end of the passage at dawn on the winter’s solstice. The light creeps down the floor illuminating the center of the far end of the passage. Amazing that this was built in 3,200 BC, before the pyramids and before Stonehenge. After a quick snack, we headed on to Belfast.

A quarter mile (mile long) walk took us to Beile Balsta Resturant (Tasty Meal in Irish). We were joined by Ed Peterson from Clonard for an enjoyable evening of good food and good discussion. After the walk back to our home while in Belfast, Farset, all were looking forward to a good nights sleep to start our first work day tomorrrow ready to go.

Submitted by Deb Aldrich