Day 9, July 7, 2012

Well, the bike ride is over but our trip is still in it's infancy. We stayed in Drogheda last night, which is near Newgrange, Knowth, and the Bru na Boinne visitor center. It also happened to be close to the Dublin Airport, which was handy since we needed to go there today and "collect" our parents, George and Grace, who flew from San Francisco to Dublin via Toronto. In Ireland, you don't pick someone up at the airport -- you "collect" them. ( I should start my own collection agency).

After we took care of a few housekeeping details at the airport, we loaded up the rental car and headed back to see the Bru na Boinne sites. Wow, are they ever impressive. They are massive in size and represent a whole lot of effort at their time of construction. We had guided tours at Knowth and Newgrange. These sites were way more than big piles of dirt. They had interior passageways and chambers that were strategically aligned so they could mark the summer and winter solstices and well as the spring and fall equinoxes. We learned that they were constructed even before the pryamids and were in use for thousands of years by neolithic groups, groups during the Iron Age, the early Christian church, and by the Normans during the Middle Ages. This is considered the top historic site in Ireland and I can certainly see why.

From there, we headed back toward Dublin and the Clontarf Castle Hotel where we'll be spending two nights. There has been a castle on the site since the 1300's. The old castle fell into disrepair so they had to demolish it and bulld a new one in the early 1800's. They have since converted into a very nice hotel that is very popular with wedding parties. In fact, there was a wedding party tonight and I can still hear people talking and laughing. That's it for now. I will bid you farewell.