Blogs from County Wicklow, Ireland, Europe

A pleasant surprise at Portrush! The weather cleared and we woke up to a warm, sunny day. Unplanned, we drove over to the Royal Portrush Golf Club, (home of the 2019 Open Championship and Rory McIlroy’s former home course) thinking we might get a last minute tee time. Lo and behold, the only time was with another twosome. Incredibly it was Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry. What a golf game!! Both Debra and I had record scores, I shot a 74 and Debra finished with 85. I had a “hole in one” on the 155 yard hole #3, par 3 and on the 510 yard par 5, hole #12, I actually drove the ball off the tee within 30 yards of Rory’s drive. It was an incredible day topped off by having a beer with Rory ... read more

This morning we began with an Irish breakfast of eggs, heavy ham and sausage, or porridge and fruit... I had the latter. Once out the door of our hotel we walked with Father Michael through The Gateway into one of Ireland’s most important monastic sites right next to our Glendalough Hotel. This early Christian monastic settlement was founded by St. Kevin in the 6th century. The round tower. A bell tower was built almost 1,000 years ago by the monks of St. Kevin’s monastery, it was also used as a place for refuge for monks and as a lookout tower. We happened upon the remains of the Cathedral, several churches and a structure known as the Priest House, the name is derived from an 18th century of bringing priests to be readied for burial and also ... read more

Another early start and long day of adventures. We checked out of the place in Dublin, and were delighted that the GPS could work. We were NOT delighted with the terrible traffic - and we had hoped to go easily south from the city. Oh well. We went the "fast" way to Powerscourt Garcens and they were gorgeous, AND the temperatures rose to about 70 and such sun that I have a red neck now! Rhodies were out, and black tulips. This used to be a huge home with estate, but the house suffered fatal fire in the 90s. Then we headed over to the highest waterfalls in Ireland (lovely but not very tall) and then over the river and thru the woods to Glendalough, a monastic settlement of great import. Lovely walk. We didn't really ... read more

Day 14 Woodenbridge. 90km This was the first day that I never used my wet weather gear - marvellous. Whilst we only did 90km it was not as easy a day as I had though it would be with 900m of climbing. No big hills but plenty of rolling stuff and I often wondered why I ever bothered to shift the chain onto the big ring. We sauntered through Wexford and then hit a headwind for a long way as we headed north just a kilometre or two from the coast. It improved as we took a minor road to Blackwater as we became shielded a little by the trees. The houses along this coast are generally much better with many newish ones and quite a few thatched ones on various states of repair. A number ... read more

Tag 320 – Tinahely Farmshow Am Montagmorgen stand ich mal etwas früher auf und machte nach dem Frühstück einen Strandspaziergang. Gegen halb elf kam Sergie wieder, und dann fuhren wir mit Jörg und Ulla los. Heute war nämlich noch Bank Holiday und in Tinahely fand eine große Farmshow statt. Nach etwa einer Stunde Fahrt waren wir da. Jörg meinte, es würden wohl jedes Jahr etwa 40.000 Besucher kommen – das heute war die größte Farmshow Irlands. Man konnte es vielleicht etwas mit einem Pferdemarkt oder einer Messe vergleichen, nur noch größer, denn es gab alles Mögliche. Als erstes sahen wir die Oldtimerausstellung an. Daneben waren auch alte Traktoren, Fahrräder (solche mit einem kleinen und einem riesigen Rad) sowie Maschinen und Motoren - so konnte man zum Beispiel einen Motor sehen, der eine kleine Kornmühle antrieb. Danach ... read more