Day 6

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Hello! Tonight is turning out to be a lazy night- why you ask? Well, this morning we walked into town (about a 1 and a half mile walk) to rent a bike to take through the gap of dunloe. we rented the bike, rode to ross castle about anothe rmile away and then waited for a boat to take us up the lakes (about an hour and a half trip) where we would start our bike ride. we went backwards on the route based on advice from mrs. oconnell of the b and b, as she said this would help us to avoid the tons of travelers on tour buses and would be more downhill than uphill on a bike. the boat ride (on a curragh- pictures to come later) was amazing! wouldn't you know while we were waiting for the boat (we had the most sober driver!) we met people from pittsburgh- shaler to be exact! They were the kelly's and they are a retired couple in their third month of travel through europe in an rv that they had shipped over from the states to belgium. what a way to retire!
on our lake tour we saw a few interseting sites- a stone bridge that was over three hundred years old, fifth century stone castle remains on an area no bigger than a large swimming pool, tons of swans and a swan family, and beautiful green mountains! little did we know we would be biking over one later. at one point on the trip there was a bit of a current and ryan and another passenger had to get out and pull it along on the bank of the lake.
when we arrived at our biking destination we began our ascent up the hill- way up the hill! it was described to us as a short climb, but even the tour de france riders would have found this hill challenging! we biked as much as we could, and then hiked the bikes up the steeper parts of the mountain.
it was great to reach the top of the mountain and you could see right between the mountains below as well as where we had come from. words cannot describe the views from here. best part about it- the rest was mostly downhill!!! :-) this was the fun part except for the lazy people who took their cars through and stopped at every viewpoint along the way causing a traffic jam, as well as having to dodge horse crap and jaunting cars, what a fragrant downhill scent.
when we reached the bottom of the gap we thought we were done, but then saw a sign saying killarney 12km (that's about 8 miles) away. we biked it and at one point ended up on a main road but then took a path through the killarney national forest (no red deer sightings). when we made it back into town we went into st marys church which was built in the mid 1800#s. it's amazing how many stones are used to create these materpieces and how they are still standing.
when we dropped off our bikes we were starving so we went next door to a restaurant called the granary for some pub grub and well deserved pints. afterwards we did the one and a half mile walk back to the b and b and crashed for a few hours.
ice cream is for dinner tonight do to our late lunch.
roundabouts for the day- 1 by bike
pints- 3 ciders
tired travelers- 2
sunburned wrists-4
sunburned noses- 1
kilometers driven- 2
kilometers biked- about 35
more to come tomorrow or the next time we have internet access, but until then, cheers!

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