Dublin; Monday, 07 April, 2008

Up and out quite early as I had booked to go on a coach tour to the Neolithic tombs at Newgrange.

All the previous times I have been to Dublin it has been during the summer, when the city centre is not at its busiest. Consequently I had not experienced the traffic jam that is O'Connell street in a Monday morning rush-hour. The bus jam rivalled even Oxford Street at its worst! I negotiated the jams, not a particularly difficult feat to achieve on foot, and got myself to the pick-up point at the main Tourist Information Centre early.

The tour started by journeying North from the city centre out towards the valley of the river Boyne, and our first stop of the morning, the Newgrange visitors centre.

After a quick look around the visitors centre and a short Multi-media presentation on the history of the site, it was time to catch the shuttle bus out to the site. The visitors centre is about 10 minutes drive from the site, and you can only get tickets from the visitors centre, consequently the site is very peaceful. We had a tour of the site including going inside the mound and a demonstration of what happens with the sunlight at dawn on the winters solstice.

Having looked around we caught the bus back to the visitors centre, and just in time, a few seconds after getting back inside the skies opened and a spectacular hail shower ensued. A quick lunch in the visitors centre and then it was back onto the bus for the second stop of the day Monasterboice

With the tour of the site completed, again just in time to avoid the next massive shower, it was back onto the bus and back to Dublin. On arrival I had a wander around the castle area for a while, before heading back to the hotel to drop stuff off and then back out for dinner.