The Adventures of R+1 and The Princess

Bru na Boinne is an area in County Meath, Ireland, located in a bend of the River Boyne. It contains one of the world's most important prehistoric landscapes dating from the Neolithic period, including the large Megalithic passage graves of Knowth, Newgrange and Dowth as well as some 90 additional monuments. The archaeological culture associated with these sites is called the "Boyne culture". Since 1993, the site has been a World Heritage Site, and it has fascinated me for about 20 years. Today we went there. The site is a complex of Neolithic mounds, chamber tombs, standing stones, henges and other prehistoric enclosures, some from as early as 35th century BC - 32nd century BC. The site thus predates the Egyptian pyramids and was built with sophistication and a knowledge of science and astronomy, which is most evident in the passage grave of Newgrange. We went first to Knowth Knowth has a great many enigmatic carved curbstones surrounding it and also internally. ...

Well after a long anticipated wait for Covid-19 to recede, we have managed to finally get to Ireland. It was a brutal 24 hours but nothing a couple of days of taking it easy couldn't fix. We waited for an hour and 15 mins for our luggage to appear in the carousel, and had almost resigned ourselved to the loss, when the two suitcases appeared in the now deserted arrivals. Luckily our dear friends Mark and Zvia hadn't given up on us and were waiting at the gates. Since then we have been looked after brilliantly by our hosts. Malahide is a lovely little village just north of Dublin and Mark & Zvia's place is quite near the railway and a quick 15 minute ride into Dublin city. Malahide itself is a weekend holiday destination, a mecca for spanish students learning English, a retirement centre and lots more besides. Here's a picture of us in the main street just before gelato.... Mark & Zvia have been very generously ferrying us from place to place ...

No, we aren't back yet Dear Reader. In fact this episode we're going to share some even more amazing adventures! When last we spoke, we were enjoying the very best of Croation hospitality in Umag, Istria. Here is another photo of our friend Sara harvesting truffles in Motovun. Motovun is a hillfort which has controlled land access to Istria since the bronze age. Motovun The Gate to Motovun Hillfort   - this took a while to edit as there were so many electrical and telephone lines strung up and over it! We had some lovely swims in the Adriatic, the water was very clear and 26 degrees. In Umag there was an old town under the water...  Sara and her sister took us to up into the hills to Brtonigla for a fiesta. There was a male acapella singing competition called 'Klape'. Great food, great wine, great singing. We didn't get back till very late. My video was pretty crap, so I won't bore you with it. Here is a better sound recording of one of ...

After a wonderful time in Verona, we decided to head, as planned, for Trieste. We had to drag ourselves away as we had moved to a new B&B that was fantastic and had a garage downstairs!  By now the temperatures had started hitting 30 deg C consistantly. Here is a photo of the Princess on our last night in Verona. Here is a photo of our Fiat Panda in the (really small) garage with a (really, really small) Fiat 500. What great little cars. Anyway we said goodbye to Verona and headed off for Trieste. Took about 3 or 4 hours of white knuckle driving on the Italian Autostrade. Trieste is very different from the Italian cities we'd been in, if only because it's built out of grey stone and looks a bit gritty till you get used to it. There's a beautiful harbour and some absolutely magnificent buildings, esp on the waterfront.   Plaza Del Unite The Princess and Venus There was an Italian navy training ship in port with lots of young things tripping up the...