Blogs from Ireland, Europe - page 17

Ireland Wednesday 1 June Nice and sunny for most of the day with a mild north westerly wind which followed is for the first 20km in green cow country. The scenery was good with mostly better farm land, apart from the section alongside Lough Conn which was a bit wild and rocky. A nice cycleway took us alongside the river from Castlebar to Turlough and then past Turlough Tower built about 1000 yrs ago with a now abandoned church built alongside at a later date. The route north was undulating with no massive hills to make the day’s climbing of 760 metres. After a light lunch in Crossmolina we headed to our destination of Ballina along some pleasant minor roads taking us past the remains of Deel Castle and what looked like an abandoned church with ... read more

Ireland Monday If I was a dour fellow I would say that the scenery today was quite good. If I was the flamboyant sort I would say that it was absolutely wonderful, even looking through my rose coloured spectacles. However, the wind was in our face for the whole day which made riding very difficult, even though we only climbed 530 metres it felt like 1000. I was really glad to finish the ride, which was made worse by the rain for the last two hours. Mostly we followed the coast which took us on a very twisty route in the boulder strewn countryside occupied by donkeys, horses and the occasional sheep. Away from the coast we encountered many lakes and ponds which the Irish call loughs and quite a few Bonny thatched cottages and hotels. ... read more

I am a couple of days behind in the posting. Our days are pretty full and my normal blog time which is during wine-thirty, has been greatly reduced. Then, when we get back from dinner, we are exhausted. I am going to try to get caught up today. We are currently starting our second day in Belfast. First, a bit on the Irish weather. It reminds me a lot of Portland, yes because it rains a lot, but more because it can change in a heartbeat. Rain one minute sunny the next. It has been hard to judge if umbrellas are needed or not. Fortunately for us, every day the phone says it is going to rain it typically does it overnight, so we have had very good weather for the most of our trip so ... read more

Started the day on time, but it was still hard to get up. Breakfast is included in our room rate. Normally that means a simple continental and maybe some scrambled eggs and sausage. Here it meant a waffle bar, omelet bar, a hot bar with everything to make your own Full Irish (same thing as a full English) and many other items. Just kept it simple and had some eggs, sausage and toast. Jerry added yogurt. I have been a little preoccupied because Tarragon is not responding well to the cat sitter, hasn’t let her pet him yet, which is a bit unusual. He is not very comfortable around other people but typically after the second day he does at least one some petting. I am trying not to stress about it, but it is pretty ... read more

We both slept very hard but were not fully rested, but that is the price you pay for world travel. Day started at 5:30, showers in the all-in-on Bathroom, a bit of re packing then breakfast. The breakfast choices were; a full English, a full English or a full English. It was a hard choice but we went with the full English. Otherwise known as a breakfast heart attack. Two sausage links, two slices of rasher bacon, on over easy egg, deep fried hashbrown, blood pudding (I have no idea what is really in it), beans, and toast. It was good, how could it not be, but did have a bit of an adverse gastro intestine affect (not Mexico City so don’t worry). After breakfast we were off to the ferry, a quick 5-minute walk from ... read more