A wee bit of a sad day today; we turned in the motorcycle for a car. It had to be done, Tropical Storm Lorenzo will be here tomorrow night and the weather will turn nasty for a day or two.
In the morning though, we toured the Newgrange historic site at Bru na Boinne. The Newgrange circular structure was built 5,500 years ago and we were able to go inside. It's pretty wild standing in the middle of this structure that was built before horses were domesticated, before the wheel was invented and 1,000 years before Stonehenge was built. The ceiling was round and has never leaked and of course there was no cement or sealant used. It was designed to be aligned with the rising sun during the winter solstice. It's in really good condition because the Irish were/are superstitious about going inside. It was a tight squeeze to get through the 4-foot high opening and at times so narrow I had to turn sideways. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the structure.
We had to take a bus to the site and John our guide had about the driest sense of humor I have ever heard - he was great and I recorded a video of him.
After Newgrange we jumped on the bike and headed to the town of Naas for lunch and then rode to Celtic Riders to drop off the bike and pick up our rental car. Below is a short video of the owner Paul and his daughter Louise who keeps Paul in line and the office running smoothly. His son Ian manages the shop and keeps the 25 bikes they own running and in good condition. It is a well run operation and I highly recommend Celtic Rider if you are looking to rent a motorcycle in Ireland.
After Paul gave us a lesson on how to drive a car in Ireland we headed south to our hotel in Portlaoise. Paul coached Susie on what to say if I start getting too close to the left side of the road, which is something American drivers have a tendency to do.
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