See the World, Travel Ginger

I traveled to Dublin on Saint Patrick's Day, but my day was not focused Paddy's Day parades and drinks at Temple Bar. I was more intrigued by the thought of "hiring a car" (as the Irish would say) and heading up the countryside to the rolling green-grass hills of Bru na Boinne. I absolutely had to inspect the inside of the prehistoric tomb Newgrange. Anything BCE really draws me into look at it, as the older the place, the more curious I become. Who built it, and why?

I talked a friend into joining me, and we picked up the car in Dublin. Of course, it's a lefty. That is, you must drive on the left side of the road in Ireland. I had flashbacks of my first experience driving on the left side in Japan, as I entered the drivers seat. They didn't even give me a key. It was some strange card that went into a slot, and everything started to feel a bit more foreign by the time I reached to my left to put the car in gear. As I took off up the road, I kept remembering what the cab driver said, "just remember to keep the driver on the same side as the inner line." It's only a short drive north of the city right?

There's something really special about Bru Na Boinne. The drive is peaceful and the landscape is full of old sights and ancient tombs. Some consider it a sacred place, and maybe that's why it holds Newgrange. We finally made it to the museum, taking the online advice by mapping our journey to the Tourist Center instead of the site itself. The bus takes you from here into the area of the tombs, so you don't actually get to drive right up to a prehistoric site. No matter, the walk to the bus was just as refreshing as the drive. The three spiral leaves that form almost a shamrock shape were seen throughout the museum grounds. We crossed the River Boyne on foot using a spiraling path to repeat the motif, and great spans of the Boyne Valley were revealed in the distance.

By the time we made it to the site, Newgrange seemed to take up the horizon all on its own. It's truly a breathtaking sight. We entered the tomb for a tour, where we learned it was built to reveal the winter solstice. Each year on this date, the sun illuminates the inner tomb to mark the shortest day of the year and the return of sunlight. The most fascinating part about it? Despite the storms that have swept the Boyne River Valley for five thousand years, the passage tomb, built by local people with absolute engineering precision, remains sealed from elements, even today.