Ireland, Day 1 - Birds & Ancient Stuff

We actually got here last night, but all we did was pick up the car and go to the hotel. It took Max a little while to get back in the groove of driving on the opposite side of the road, but he was fine by the afternoon. It's actually not driving on the other side of the road, it's being on the other side of the car and shifting with your left hand that's difficult. There was no problem when we came last year in our own car.

While last night was the 16th, I consider this morning Em's real birthday, since she was born at night in Hawaii, which is morning on the 17th in Ireland. So, today she was allowed to be measured again. (I had said no more measuring until she was 13, because I didn't want my 12-year-old to be taller than me.) I'm still the teeniest bit taller.

She didn't want to get up

So, a few weeks ago, I found out about a place called Dublin Falconry, a place where you can go visit birds of prey. The also have Hawk Walks, where you get to take a falcon out and have it fly to your hand and to trees. Max & I decided to get that for Em for her birthday. When I got the info about that, Trevor (the owner) sent me info on some of the other activities they had for purchase. I wrote to family members and asked if they would like to go in on a gift for Em. They gave generously, and we were able to get the super awesome package for her. She had no idea until we pulled up into the parking lot.

The first thing Trevor told us was that we wouldn't be able to do our Hawk Walk. He showed us Thelma, the hawk that goes on the walks. She had been attacked the day before by one of the young hawks. he said he hadn't had that happen in the 30 years he had been working with birds. He pronounced it "boards." We were really confused at first. I though he was saying "boars", and I couldn't figure out why he had boars there. It didn't take too long to figure it out, though. Once we got with the flow of the accent, there haven't been too many incidents with not understanding. For me, anyway. But, he promised he would make it up to us, and he did.

Poor Thelma. See how she's holding her leg up?

First, we met the dogs

And a lot of the birds

Lola, the snowy owl, was my favorite. She's molting, so she's a cranky thing. She kept screaming at us. It reminded me of a tired toddler.

The first bird we got to hold was Noddy, a barn owl. We learned that owls love to be petted. Noddy was such a sweetheart!

He was so beautiful and soft

We went outside and saw the tackle room. We admired the beautiful falcon hoods

And we saw lunch

Then, we got to play with JJ, another kind of barn owl

Louise, a Harris Hawk, was next.

Then, it was time for hunting practice for Dargo. He's a young falcon. Trevor tied a chick on a lure

And then it was time to bring Dargo in to be weighed. First, Trevor put a hood on him, because otherwise he would have gone crazy on the chicks and would have been uncontrollable. Then, he put Dargo on the scale.

We took him out to a field behind the falconry place and flew him around. He's a  naughty thing, and kept landing, which he's not supposed to do.

But, he finally did well, and was allowed to catch the lure

After that, it was time to feed lunch to all the birds. It had been raining on and off the whole time, but it started raining in earnest while we were out on the walk. I stayed inside with the camera while Max & Em went out to help feed the birds.

Everybody got some chicks

Including Lola

We got to meet some more owls. Linchon is a Bengal owl whom Trevor rescued from a pet store almost 3 years ago. He didn't want to do anything, but he finally decided to fly just a couple of weeks ago. Since it was rainy, we went inside. Linchon didn't want to fly inside, but Max & Em still got to pet him. Em was the first person (besides Trevor) to touch him since he was rescued. Trevor said that he was glad Em was so calm, because it was good to have other people touch Linchon.

Our last bird was Teddy, the eagle owl. She loos a lot like Linchon, but is quite a bit bigger. she's about 7lbs, but that's pretty heavy when it's sitting on your outstretched arm!

On the way out, Trevor gave us each a nice pewter pin to commemorate our time, and he gave Em 4 feathers. Em loves feathers, but I usually don't let her have them, since you never know what kind of mites or diseases the birds may have had. But, since Trevor's birds are healthy, I let her have these. She was so excited, and the feathers are really lovely. 

The birds were only the first stop on our way up to Belfast. Our next stop was Bru na Boinne. There are two major prehistoric tombs there - Knowth and Newgrange. I had read that only 750 people are allowed in the tombs, so get there early. But, our falcon thing didn't end until about 1:30. I figured it was worth a try, though, since it was on the way anyway.

Luckily, we were able to get in. You can tour both of the tombs, but you can only go in Newgrange. So, though it isn't as old or as well decorated, we still chose Newgrange. We were starving, and we had a while until our tour, so we had some lunch at the cafe. It was pretty good, and way huger than we expected. The piece of rhubarb pie that Max got would have helped half of Ireland through the famine, I think. We didn't realize there was so much of it until it was already on the plate.


Anyway, then we hopped on the bus for our tour.

Newgrange is 1000 years older than Stonehenge, and 500 years older than the pyramids. It was pretty cool. It was a passage tomb, which means there is a passage that leads into an open area. There are 3 alcoves around the open area with large bowl-shaped stones that were used to hold cremains. For a few days on either side of the winter solstice, the sunrise shines right down the center of the passage. The inside is very small, and you can't take pictures in there, but we got some of the outside.

We went back to the Visitor's Center and looked around the exhibition,

A reconstruction of one of the bowl stones

Then we took off for our next stop, Monasterboice.

We decided this was a cat door

Dinosaur walls, like in Hagerstown!

Monsaterboice was an abbey. It's now mostly a graveyard, but it does have some abbey ruins. It has a round tower, which the monks and the people from the surrounding villages would use as protection from Viking raids. Originally, the door would have been much higher, with a ladder that could be pulled up, but the surrounding land has gotten much higher since then.

Monasterboice also has one of the best examples of a Celtic High Cross left in Ireland.

It has several beautiful crosses, but I don't know how old the rest of them are. I really liked this one

I liked this gravestone, too

Then it was up to Belfast. The drive to Belfast from Dublin looks an awful lot like Maryland and Pennsylvania, I thought! In Ireland, we call it beautiful. Back home, it's just farmland. The main difference is that, in Ireland, the signs are all in Gaelic and English.

And there are lots of sheep in Ireland

We saw a rainbow

Along the way, we saw this sign for the Bronte Homeland, with a picture of a book. I had no idea that the Brontes had been in Ireland, so we took the turn.

We followed a couple of signs, and then the signs turned into signs for the Bronte Steakhouse. But, they were still brown signs like the ones for cultural and tourist attractions, so we followed them.

They did, indeed, lead us to a steakhouse.

We soon found a sign that said the Bronte Homeland Drive was over. Uh, OK. We later discovered that it was the Bronte dad who had landmarks there, though we still saw none of them.

The rest of the drive to Belfast was uneventful. I found a hotel in the Titanic Quarter that was cheaper than the others I had been looking at, and I'm excited.

Tomorrow is Titanic Day!

Emma says - OMG, the birds were THE GREATEST THING EVER!!! I loved all of them, even if the hawks kind of scared me. I got to pet owls on their faces, and they loved us! I got feathers, and they are really cool. The owl feathers are very, very soft compared to the hawk and falcon feathers. Thank you guys SOOOOO MUCH!!!!