Thursday, January 9, 2014

Europe Day 26 - Part One

Newgrange day!

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It’s a huge mound older than Stonehenge, which is a tomb but also maybe more, oooooh.
You drive up to a museum/exhibit building, which talks about the area and the tomb, and you can get your tour tickets. You can’t get to the tomb except through the tour.
Then there’s quite a, lovely, jaunt to walk to some buses, which take you to the mound.
Here’s the wiki, if you’re really curious: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange

Newgrange~!


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Those were some cute chair things along the trail to get to the buses. The opening pic was also taken from that path.

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Then the bus takes you here, to the base of the hill. This is where my gramma waited, because though they graciously provided a wheelchair, I’m not sure why because you can’t push it up the gravel path, and it doesn’t fit in the tomb itself.

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The entrance!
And this is what makes Newgrange extra special.

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The passageway is exactly situated so that during the winter solstice the light comes through that upper opening and illuminates the center.

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They do a brief demo with a light, but the real thing must be amazing!

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They do a lotto system to determine who gets to go and see on the winter solstice, and thousands of people enter. And of course it’s weather permitting, the guide said it’s often too foggy to work, sadly.

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I thought it might be some weird sort of ancient Dalek technology…

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This is the view when you’re standing in front of the entrance looking out.

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All around the base were these great big slabs with neolithic carvings, though not all were readily visible anymore.

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Seriously though, look how evenly spaced the Dalek bumps are. Mighty suspicious if you ask me…

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