County Kildare

Hey everybody,
Yesterday my mom and I made our way out of Dublin and had a full day tour with a guide named John Daly. John was an amazing guide, he seemed to know every possible detail about all periods of Irish history. We drove to a bunch of different sites, stopping first at a place called Newgrange. Newgrange is a megalithic burial site, which predates the pyramids by 500 years. It was a basically a big mound of earth with a passage way leading into it, ending into a single chamber constructed of rocks. This was my mom's favorite thing we saw, probably because we were inside a covered structure. I forgot to mention that it was pouring rain the whole day. After Newgrange, we went to an old monastery where we saw some ancient crosses that have stood in the same location for over a thousand years. Then we drove on to the Hill of Tara, which is now a series of mounds atop a pretty stumpy hill; however, it is the home to more history than any other place in Ireland. It was the Irish capital for thousands of years, and many important battles took place there as well. It was awesome to stand up there, despite the rain, because one was very aware of the fact that every important person through 5 thousand years of Irish history had been there at one point.
At night, we arrived at our hotel, which is called Barberstown Castle, which did indeed used to be a castle. It is quite fancy, with great food. This morning, mom and I walked into the village near by, Straffon. From there I went on to another town, called Clane, while mom looked around Straffon a bit. It was about an hour and a half to Clane, and I took a lunch at a quiet little pub. The weather was beautiful, but the walk was right along a pretty busy road, so I decided to catch the bus back. We just had some tea, and now mom is having a rest beforee dinner. Tomorrow we head back to Dublin. I'm back home in ten days, and I am starting to get rally excited to return. But there is still lots more to do!
Lots of love
Luke