after a rather good night and an equally good and relaxed breakfast1 at hotel doolin we pack once more and embark on the long trip across ireland, going from the atlantic west coast all the way to navan. the weather is not as good as it was yesterday with clouds covering most of the sky.

we don’t just go to navan directly but instead take the scenic route. our first stop is at burren national park, the smallest of the 6 national parks in ireland and part of the larger area the burren: a karst landscape exhibiting the typical karst limestone pavement and also host for a number of megalithic tombs and portal dolmens — rather impressive. after some time to our own we continue through the rather barren looking landscape — mr tambour cites edmund ludlow, an english parlimentarian, who is supposed to have said during counter-guerilla operations in 1651–1652:

a country where there is not enough water to drown a man, wood enough to hang one, nor earth enough to bury him

— [h2g2, hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy]2

we stop at burren house near ballyvaughan for a tea, some shopping,3 and some decompression. it’s the last chance to see the atlantic on our pilgrimage as from now on we are going to go east again.

aside from a short lunch stop in one of the little towns on the way east we stay on our pilgrimage bus until we reach the monastery of clonmacnoise in the afternoon.

the monastery of clonmacnoise was founded by st ciaráran in 545 AD. it was strategically located on the main east–west land route through ireland at that time. by the 9th century it had become the center of religion, learning, craftsmanship, and trade in ireland and was in fact a european academic focal point at the time. it’s not hard to imagine that from places like clonmacnoise western civilization was indeed brought back to the continent (and, thus, saved) as thomas cahill writes in his book how the irish saved civilization.

after an audio–visual about clonmacnoise in the visitor’s center we go and explore the ruins of the monastery.

it’s in the early evening when we arrive at our hotel in navan, the newgrange hotel — which despite looking rather old is supposedly only three years old! interesting.

at dinner we are joined by mr kleemann, the owner of the travel agency that arranged the hotels and our bus. it transpires that mr kleemann is originally from franconia in northern bavaria. he seems rather excited to see us — unfortunately that excitement doesn’t carry over to sponsoring the drinks oh, well, it was worth a try

after dinner we invite ms r for a pint of guinness — it’s been, after all, my birthday

p.s.: navan is a rather special city name: it’s one of the few places having a palindromic name!

1. no problems with getting coffee, no being told off for sitting at the wrong table  ↩
2. the h2g2 entry interestingly adds:

The words of the Cromwellian general Edmund Ludlow, describing the area known as the Burren, are well known in Ireland. What is less well known is that he went on to say of the people there:

…and yet their cattle are very fat; for the grass growing in turfs of earth, of two or three foot square, that lie between the rocks, which are of limestone, is very sweet and nourishing.

↩ 3. i buy a very nice woollen sweater  ↩