The Rest Of The Ireland Trip

 BackRoads is a wonderful company for a biking trip. They take care of everything from hotels and meals, to bikes, routes, and snacks. There were 3 staff members to see to our group of 15 and they all seemed to enjoy their jobs. All of us riders got on well and had a great time. There was a family of five (all adults), the New York Six (us) then two couples - one married for many years and the other, platonic travel buddies.  There was not a difficult person in the group, which made for an enjoyable week.

 

One of 2 support vans. 
Our little riding group, George, me, Tom, and Janice.



Most of our group enjoying music in a pub.

One of the typical roads we traveled on our bikes.






An old castle on a coastal route.

Taking a mid ride rest stop.


Another beautiful vista.

And another.

After six wonderful days of biking and pampering at castle hotels, we were shuttled back to Galway where we caught a train to Dublin. 

On the train this little dog Vida, made friends with us and kept us occupied.


The first thing we did was have dinner at a nice pub near the hotel where I had my first fish and chips which was lovely. Then the six of us headed down to the Temple Bar area which is the place to be. It was extremely crowded, and hot and smelled of urine. Definitely not my scene. The guys seemed determined to relive their college days, but I had enough and headed back to the hotel. 

Tom, me, and Janice at one of many pubs we visited.


The next two days were hot as Dublin was experiencing a heat wave of near 90 degrees. Janice, Jeff, and I walked to the Botanical Gardens the next day which was beautiful but tiring. 

It was a long walk to the gardens, but we made it.

Beautiful geums I'm going to add to my garden.


We had the idea to take a train to Howthe to walk the cliff path and enjoy some seafood. Unfortunately, so did the rest of Dublin. The train ride was unpleasant to say the least, as we had to stand and sweat the whole way. The cliff walk was nice, but when we tried to eat at a restaurant, they could not get us in until 5 pm. We bugged out on an Uber since we were not going to endure the train again.

At the cliff walk at Howthe on the coast.


Our last day was only a half day. We were being driven to the airport at 11, so I had a morning walk in Phoenix Park and ended up going to the Dublin Zoo for about an hour. It was a nice morning on my own with flowers and animals to look at.

A snow leopard posed nicely for me.

The flight home was uneventful but I can't recommend Aer Lingus. They did not have a good user experience, but did manage to transport us successfully and sort of on time. I guess that is the best you can hope for from airlines these days. 

I've been home five days and I have been taking a long time to get over the jet lag and get back to my regular self. The trip tired me out more than I would have thought. The heat and humidity didn't help, but now we've had two nice days where I could get myself into the garden and get it back from a wild state.
I walked and biked both days and went to the Farmer's Market with Annette. Now on to book club and bike rides and time with my friends and family.

My own little garden.


Comments

  1. MargaretJuly 20, 2025 at 12:12 PM

    The scenery is so gorgeous and the outings sound interesting except for the urine smelling pub crawl. I would skip that too! I like beer but after one pint, I'm finished and ready for bed. :) I think cyclists tend to have a similar mindset and would get along better than say, a cyclist and a Harley biker. Or a cyclist and a Hummer driver. Hope I'm making sense--not enough coffee this morning! I'm happy that you're recovering from jet lag (awful!) and getting back into your normal routines. What did you read for BC?

    ReplyDelete
  2. MaureenJuly 20, 2025 at 8:26 PM

    We read Cults Like Us by Jane Borden, but I didn't read it and most members only read parts of it. We're now reading James by Percival Everett which I already started and its very good.

    ReplyDelete

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