Blogs from Ireland, Europe - page 5

After our very long flight it was great to get out in the fresh air and walk some of the areas of the south side of the river Liffey, including many of the Dublin highlight's, Temple Bar area, Trinity College, Bank of Ireland, City Hall and many Irish pubs. Great to enjoy the sunny walk to get and idea of what Dublin has to offer once we are over the jetlag. Great to enjoy some of Dublin hospitality for a cooling ale. Lovely day Thursday exploring Dublin, a truly magical city. We started the day early as the sun rising at 4:56am (this is so suited to Rose) as she is walking at 6am. Walking down to the river Liffey where we found a great little restaurant for Irish Potato Cakes, so yum and cheap. After ... read more

We are on the road again and we are off to Clew Bay which is includes the Spanish Armada Viewpoint. This was named after two ships from the defeated Spanish Armada fleet sank here in storms in 1588 - you cannot see any ship wrecks, well let’s be honest they would have been long gone by now due to the time frame. However once again the vista (yes getting good with words) was stunning. I am going to have to think of other words to describe the vistas (see did it again, ha ha) as all I am using is stunning or amazing but what else can you say when they are. We then move on to Achill Island and over the Achill Sound with the bridge crossing it onto Keel Strand where we eye up ... read more

After a good night's rest near Beagh Castle despite being right under the flight path of jets taking off from Shannon Airport just across the estuary, I set off towards Loop head. On the way I was hoping to visit the Flying Boat Museum in Foynes. After a couple of kilometres on lovely quiet back roads, I crossed the N69 to Askeaton for a look around. It's a very pretty little village with an old Abbey that got dissolved (a euphamism for destroyed) in the 16th century and the ruins of an old castle that was destroyed in the Cromwellian wars. After breakfast in Askeaton I had to go rejoin the N69 to do battle with the HGVs heading to the port at Foynes. Fortunately for me there was a hard shoulder of varying widths so ... read more

I now have three days cycling south under my belt. A mixture of roads, cycle path and canal side greenways. Surprisingly there is no Shannon cycle route as such. There are cycle routes, local loops mainly, and more in development, but still a way to go. From looking at the tourist information boards in each county, they are all very keen to show cycle routes and loops in their own county, but not so much inter-county info. Leaving Drumshambo I discovered the board walk that crosses Acres Lough and links to Leitrim village via a lovely canal towpath. However I had to cover the last few kilometres to Carrick-on-Shannon on the road. Apparently they are still talking about installing a path along the river/canal. Carrick on Shannon is a lovely bustling town. After looking into the ... read more

We start off quite early after having breakfast and first thing I do is take us down the wrong road - well you could say it was a road but if honest it was more like a cycle track. When it got really narrow I said I don’t think this can be a main road and you guessed it this was not a main road at all. However if honest it hugged the coastline more than the main road did and we did not meet any vehicles coming the other way, Yes and not even cycles. I wanted to see the waterfall and caves at Ardara but hey ho this is getting regular could I find them not at all. By the time we realised we had missed the turning to the caves we are following ... read more