Ireland 3

Probably the last post from the Emerald Isle. We are doing laundry in Clifden, which means waiting for someone else to do it for us -- there is no "automatic" laundromat. It's OK. The weather, after being fabulous for a few days is now what they call "grand soft" (warm, windy and misty). So we've been hunkered down in a cute cafe and are now getting our email and blogging fixes.

As I said in my last post, we had a good visit to the village of Roundstone, our favourite area so far and where we'd look for a cottage in the future. The hill climb was just the right size for us. I didn't mention the spectacular header I did off the top of a 6 foot cliff landing on my back in a huge gorse bush. Thank god for backpacks otherwise I would have been a human pin cushion.

We didn't end up going to the Aran Isles yesterday as planned. We decided to stay closer to home and rode our bikes down to Cleggan where we caught the ferry to Inishbofin Island. It was about 30 minutes on the most beautiful, sunny day yet, making our way across the waves and being reminded of being in a much smaller boat on Georgian Bay.

On the way to the ferry, the thing happened that you'd think would happen more often. Just after a bus had passed us, we came around a corner and there it was, stuck trying to pass a truck. They were thoroughly wedged. We couldn't wait so we lifted our bikes into the neighbouring field and road around them -- keeping a watchful eye on the single cow and calf in the middle of the field hoping it really was a mom and not a dad!



The island was small enough that we easily biked all its roads in the 5 hours we had, even with an hour and a half on the beach (with a vicious sunburn to show for it). Small but beautiful, it was especially nice not to have too many cars about. The ferry is only for pedestrian and bike traffic. The cars are all very old and they obviously keep them going as long as they can, and mercifully there aren't many. So we have the roads mostly to ourselves, except for all the hikers. We even had about an hour riding off-road on sheep tracks. Very wonderful. We came back quite exhilerated.

Enjoy the photo album or slideshow.

Ireland Post 2

We just reached the end of our second week in Ireland. We're currently in a cottage in the Connemara region of County Galway. Just 10 km outside the town of Clifden (where there is a charming video and Internet store where I'm writing this post).

We finished off our week in County Kerry with a wonderful bike ride in Killarney National Park. There is a nice 10 km ride through the woods and the estates of an old abbey with a place to get lunch and tea looking out over the lake. Killarney is wooded and has several lakes linked together by meandering streams and is very reminiscent of the Canadian Shield landscape. The day was cool but mostly sunny and we had an easy but fun ride on a trail without cars -- gently undulating and curving like a good croos-country ski trail.

The following day we woke to grey and rain, but fortunately we were travelling. With windshield wipers engaged for most of the way we fought our way out of County Kerry and headed north for the Connemara. It is about a 4 hour drive but with traffic jams, lunch and shopping it took us about 7 hours. The traffic in Ireland is hard to believe. It seems as if the infrastructure is a bit overloaded. We took over 30 minutes to get through a small town that was a juncture for 2 major highways. We were lucky. The guys coming into the town from the opposite direction were lined up for miles. They must have taken over an hour.

The new cottage in Connemara is quite unlike the one in Kerry. It is relatively new, which means bigger and more windows. It is spacious and has lots of natural light, but not much in the way of charm. And the beds are hard (sore hips).

The first day we took it slow and mostly just walked to the beach and lazed the day away. Monday, we were more adventurous and drove over to Omey Island, only reachable by low tide across a sand bar. The day was glorious, the best yet, with lots of sun and almost no wind. We took a long walk out onto a peninsula into the Atlantic and found a sandy place to even go swimming. On my god. Very cold. Think Georgian Bay in early June.

Tuesday we went to the famous Kylemore Abbey (photo at top of today's post). For 33 years I've been looking at a photo of the Abbey on the wall of our cottage. I think it has finally rotted away. So I had to go and see it, if just to take a photo to replace it. The Abbey was actually built in the second half of the 19th century and is a bit of Victorian neo-something. From outside, up close, it's a bit overbearing, but it is quite nice inside. Now an abbey for Benedictine nuns, it was originally build by the heir of a Manchester cotton fortune. They had a lot of money, and even blasted a space out of the rock where they planted a formal Victorian garden that the state has been restoring since 1995. It will need some time to really fill in. I find it interesting the way the modern democratic states now fund the restoration of aristocratic follies. The place is now a major tourist center and probably provides local jobs and helps keep the nuns in cash, but it is a bit of an oddity all the same.

Today we drove across the "bog road" from south of Clifden. It is a vast bog littered with small lakes and very desolate. Lovely on a sunny day. We then went to the picturesque village of Roundstone where we climbed the local hill (3 hours with lunch). We had a lovely sunny afternoon and enjoyed it a good deal more than Carrauntoohil. But you'll have to wait for the photos until my next posting cause they're still in the camera.

Off to the Aran Isles with our bikes tomorrow.

See the photos or the slideshow.