"Not a Day to Do the Washing" or Skylights and Sun Poisoning...Take your Pick

Wednesday June 6
Inishmeer Island of the Aran Islands

19 miles

Rain early then glorious SUN!

Waking up to rain is a bit daunting. I just want to stay in bed...well, I just want to stay in bed every morning, but especially on a raining morning. ANd this morning was a rainy morning...and I had a hard time going to sleep last night (he said it was decaf!) so I was shorted a few of the usual 10+ hours I've been sleeping. But after listening to a bit of the audiobook Wild, I dragged my tush out of bed to join Fuat under the tarp for our morning coffee. I thought it would be good if we did a load of laundry seeing as how it was raining anyhow and biking wouldn't be as much fun.

So off I went to find out where the laundromat was in town, it being a larger town on the map than most we'd cycled through. I spotted the Postman at the gas station. He oughta know if there's a laundromat in town or not, don't ya think? Yup, right across the street, but I don't think he opens until 10. That works. So we pack up and pedal over at about 10 and it's open...but it's not a laundromat, it's a launderette...he does the washing. He didn't think we'd find a laundromat until we got to a city. Oh well, off we pedaled. A few more stinky days won't matter much.

And the town we were departing from, Ballyvaughn, was right on the Bay of Galway, we just hadn't gotten to the water the night before. What a beautiful ride we had down the rolling coast, past the sweetest stone cottages ya ever did see, and oh, the views. Up and down, and up, and down. Oh my aching legs.



And the sun came out, and the day was delightful. One thing I've noticed is that most of the houses have skylights, even older ones have had them put in. Good thinking, these Irish:) One house had 6 panels next to each other in 2 rows of 3. Now that's a well lit room!

Our plan for the day was to get to Doolin so we could go out to the Aran Islands tomorrow. If we had a plan. We got into Doolin about 3 and the woman at the visitors center said we could catch a ferry out tonight and camp on Inisheer (the smallest and nearest island) and return tomorrow night. When I kidded with her about what a beautiful day it was and how I thought I should have done the wash so it could have dried in the sun, she shared what a friend had told her..."Too nice a day to do the wash!" I hear ya, sista!!! Then I told her how I thought the Irish dried there clothes in the rain...that gave her a chuckle.

So we paid her 25 euros each for the ferry roundtrip and hustled down to the dock. Come to find out we'd been ripped off in town by at least 10 euros too much. Lesson learned. Oh well.

It was a bit scary for me seeing them lift Blaze off the dock onto the small ferry. I know how tippy she can be and I had visions of her landing in the drink. But they managed her and then I had to leap across the crevasse between the dock and the boat because they didn't want to put down the gangplank for just the 2 of us.

So here we are in the quaintest of villages. We're at the "campground" and we're the only ones here. 10 euros for the night and free showers! And they have a washer and dryer so tomorrow, when it's suppose to be raining (surprise, surprise), we're gonna get some wash done.

We took a quick ride around the east end of the island. Oh, I've never seen so many stone walls...and so high. The actually wall in very small corrals, they're too small to call them pastures. We met a local woman (born on Inishmore - the largest island, but has lived here for 30 years... summers... winters in Dublin. She told me she walks 5 miles around the island every day. She has to walk on EVERY road to do that! Asked her what we should see here and she said "the sunken church". So we checked it out on the way home. Of course the first problem was finding a lane that led there. We could see it, but the lanes ended at someone's house. This church is on a high plot of land in the middle of a cemetery and can't be seen until your at it's door. It's really built in a hole in the middle of the cemetery. I think it was to hide it from attach. It's from the 10th century.

Ok, it's after 10 pm, and still light out and you can here the children playing at the park. I can't get used to all this daylight, but I love it!

Another day in wonderland,

BagLady

Oh, ya, about the sun poisoning. I've got these painful bumps all over my chest and tops of my thighs that were exposed to the sun today. I've got a good tan so I didn't put anything on them but tonight the skin feels lumpy and raw to the touch. Ouch. It's not burned. It's more like hives that hurt. They'll heal. My body's strong.

And now, goodnight!!


And, for anyone who cares, I was able to charge up all my devices today with all that sun. Now we'll just see if the batteries that said they were fully charged have any juice when I need them.


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3000 BC was surely a long time ago!

June 5th
Ballyvaughn, Ireland
26 hilly miles

Started the morning learning about Lady Gregory, a patron of WB Yeats and a playwright and actress herself. Great story about her and her mansion, Coole Park.

Then a lengthy discussion with a woman who worked at Coole Park about what route to take and what to see in The Barren (the "Burn").




It's the large expanse of rocky, rocky rolling hills with fragile alpine flora and fauna growing in the clints and gyres (maybe I got that right) of the limestone. We missed our turn right out of town, but that always makes for the best of times: the carpenter in the yard cutting flooring gave us directions, the horses hovering nearby while we had our lunch on the side of the road, and the guy in the truck who asked if I was the police as I stood right in the road getting directions from another guy in a truck:). I'm glad our maps don't work well and we get to talk to so, so many folks. The climb up over the Barren was steep and of course that's when the skies opened up and it really poured on us. Talk about cold! The temps are only in the 50's anyways. Colder yet was the long run down the other side but we were blessed with the most delightful pub in Carron where we decided to have dinner by the warmth of the fire.




And I got a bit of wifi, if I stood in the corner of the far dining room on one foot:). It was nice to get everyone's notes. Thank you:)).

This area is covered in stone ruins EVERYWHERE! We stopped and rambled through an old stone house overgrown with briars. It had a lovely stone fireplace in the center wall. You could tell it was a couple hundred years old. Later we saw a stone tomb, Poulabrone, called a portal tomb. It had two tall portal stones flanking the entrance and a flat capstone on top. This was from 3000 BC! Hard to fathom!! They've found 33 bodies buried here when the excavated it about 20 years ago. Breathtaking. And I never knew these existed. Continuing on into the evening, trying to get some km behind us and while looking for a place to camp that we could hang the tarp, I pulled off when I saw a nook that might work. There was a fence wall with an opening too narrow for our bikes, but I decided to explore beyond. Spotting a path off to the left I decided to follow it up, thinking it might lead to someone's house. And what do you think I found? An old stone fort! There was a plaque about it when you got up there. Cathermore was the name. A double walled circular fort. Most ruins now. But still an exciting find!!!

Pedal on, pedal on. Hard to find places to camp because of all the walls and the animals in the pastures. We continued on into the next town and pulled into the church yard. Churches love pilgrims! Even a bathroom open to the outside. Ahhh! All the comforts of home:)

Happy Birthday, Kim C! I was thinking of you today. Hope it was a happy one, you beautiful being:)

Bonking BagLady

Oh I forgot to mention the puppy who hopped on Blaze's seat as we were leaving the pub then proceeded to follow us for several kilometers down the road. She sure was cute but I was afraid we'd adopted her and she wouldn't find her way home. We managed to lose her on a long downhill. Then we met a cyclist going the other way and I asked her to pick her up and take her back to the pub. She'd follow anyone!

Stone Fences, Iron Gates, but no Moats

Monday June 4th
Gort, Ireland (stealth in Coole Park)
35 miles
Chilly but sunny, so we'll take it:)

We've noticed a lot of large homes under construction (and built, just like back home) but the construction has stopped. The homes are big, just like back home. A closer look today showed that there's no inside insulation on that cinder block and the floors are cement. It's gotta be cold! For heat it looked like hot water radiators on the walls.



And every house has a stone wall to the road and an iron gate. Mini castles one and all! Asked someone today about the fences and he said it was because "the lazy farmers can't keep their animal home".

Facetimed my daughter, Dana, this afternoon. It worked well. Maybe next weekend I can Skype with Avery (older daughter). It was pretty cool. The town of Gort had free wifi from EirCom right on the street. That's how wifi should be...EVERYWHERE FOR FREE! It's pretty frustrating because when we do get to a town and I get some wifi, poor Fuat is just hanging around while I scramble to upload my blog, get emails, write emails, check Facebook, etc. He's quite patient but it is a bit awkward. It's in the evening that I have down time and then we're in the "woods". I'm not going to get on the internet much this trip, I can tell.

We visited William Butler Yeats' Thoor Ballylee, a cottage and tower near a stream. But of course, it was closed. Then we came on to Coole Park, the estate of Lady Gregory, a friend and patron of WB Yeats. But alas it was 5:03 when we got to the Visitors' Center and you can guess what time it closed:/. So we went into the Walled Garden and saw the Autograph Tree with many "famous" autuographs of yore including the Lady Gregory and WB Yeats. After cooking a dinner of rice, onion, raisins, cashews with cinnamon and tossed salad, we decided to "stay after hours" and cycled up into the woods to camp for the night. In the morning we'll go get the free scoop at the Visitors' Center and roam the grounds some more. Her house no longer stands, but there are stone remnants of the stables and pigeon roosts. Stone, stone, stone...everywhere and everything is made of it...yesterday and today!

Oh ya, for lunch today we sat in an ancient graveyard eating our brie and bread and apple. Then we met the most charming farmer hanging over the stone wall telling us how he farms up bog to dry it and heat his home. He had a lot of tales to share and all with a brogue that was almost impossible to understand. I did get a bit of video of him, but that's on my camera not my phone.

I did shoot a bit of video of the countryside with the cows and sheep and stone walls. Hope it uploads easily. (Didn't upload. I may try to upload it separately.)
I've been having such ease of loading my journal this time, I don't want to mess it up.

The solar charger is working if I plug my phone in directly to the panels, but I tried to plug the phone into the battery pack and it says it's an unacceptable power device, or something like that. So I"m good as long as the sun shines. We'll just see how it goes.

And that's all folks...

BagLady


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Drying Laundry in the Rain

Sunday June 3rd
Rain!
34 miles and one flat...

Poured rain ALL night! Fuat's tent held up well and we were quite dry in the morning. We've also brought a tarp (one EZ Duzit found last spring when we were hiking the AT and gave to me - putting it to good use:)) and put it up to cool under. Worked well and made packing up in the rain a bit easier.

Most of the morning it was raining but not too heavy. I had to laugh when I saw many times laundry out on the line. Some of the houses are quite large (McMansions of Ireland), and I was thinking they'd do better to have one of those rooms as a drying room since it rains so much here. Even in Hawaii where it rains a lot, people would have places under cover to dry their laundry...especially since you just never knew when it would start raining and you might not be home to get it down.

Fuat had his first flat today when he hit a pothole. He's lucky he didn't go down. We were in a town and he was looking around and BAM! Thank goodness for The Cozy Kitchen for hanging in while he fixed it.

Cold and rainy is only tough when we stop. While biking it's those minor adjustments to keep my body from overheating: hood on..hood off...mitts on...mitts off...jacket zipped...jacket unzipped...pants rolled up...pants rolled down. I'm a busy woman!!!

Sitting now in pub having hot chocolate and Triffle & Custard & Cream. Yum!
Too bad the free wifi isn't working. Wifi is turning out to be hard to find. This is rural Ireland!

So no power and no wifi...BagLady disconnects...begrudgingly:(

Stopped for the night between Kiltormer and Mullagh, just southwest of Ballinasloe about the middle of the country (for anyone trying to follow us). We'd been wandering down all the small country roads we could find. They are so narrow, but there are few cars and the views are spectacular. Quaint Ireland! But we can't figure out where we are on the map(s) and often just turn according to the compass. No hurry. No place we have to be. We'll get to the west coast eventually:)

When Fuat said he was ready to look for a place, he had pulled into a building parking lot. We looked around and found a lane just past it that led to the grassy fields behind a Montessori school, The All Stars Montessori School, in fact. And there's a shelter for our bikes with benches for sitting and cooking. Bingo! Life doesn't get any better than this. Luckily tomorrow's a holiday or this wouldn't be such a good option.

Took a walk down the lane to see the sheep out grazing in the pastures. Just as I imagined Ireland would look. So pastoral! We have horses whinneying, sheep baaing, and cows mooing....ahhhh...bliss! So much nicer than last night's campground. What was supper, you ask? Reconstituted refried black beans on tortillas with slices of avocado, zucchini, red pepper, and cheddar cheese! With "digestive" biscuits for dessert with chamomile tea steeped right from the dried flowers we got at at tea shop.

Stopped to get some water late this afternoon and the guy in the little shop said he didn't think I sounded American. I said Thank You! I said as an American, I never heard anyone tell me that they liked my accent. He said, "and you're not going to hear it from me, either!" "Well, I do like your accent!", said I.

And it's time to get warm and comfortable for the night.

BagLady

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Drying Laundry in the Rain

Sunday June 3rd
Rain!
34 miles and one flat...

Poured rain ALL night! Fuat's tent held up well and we were quite dry in the morning. We've also brought a tarp (one EZ Duzit found last spring when we were hiking the AT and gave to me - putting it to good use:)) and put it up to cool under. Worked well and made packing up in the rain a bit easier.

Most of the morning it was raining but not too heavy. I had to laugh when I saw many times laundry out on the line. Some of the houses are quite large (McMansions of Ireland), and I was thinking they'd do better to have one of those rooms as a drying room since it rains so much here. Even in Hawaii where it rains a lot, people would have places under cover to dry their laundry...especially since you just never knew when it would start raining and you might not be home to get it down.

Fuat had his first flat today when he hit a pothole. He's lucky he didn't go down. We were in a town and he was looking around and BAM! Thank goodness for The Cozy Kitchen for hanging in while he fixed it.

Cold and rainy is only tough when we stop. While biking it's those minor adjustments to keep my body from overheating: hood on..hood off...mitts on...mitts off...jacket zipped...jacket unzipped...pants rolled up...pants rolled down. I'm a busy woman!!!

Sitting now in pub having hot chocolate and Triffle & Custard & Cream. Yum!


Too bad the free wifi isn't working. Wifi is turning out to be hard to find. This is rural Ireland!

So no power and no wifi...BagLady disconnects...begrudgingly:(

Stopped for the night between Kiltormer and Mullagh, just southwest of Ballinasloe about the middle of the country (for anyone trying to follow us). We'd been wandering down all the small country roads we could find. They are so narrow, but there are few cars and the views are spectacular. Quaint Ireland! But we can't figure out where we are on the map(s) and often just turn according to the compass. No hurry. No place we have to be. We'll get to the west coast eventually:)

When Fuat said he was ready to look for a place, he had pulled into a building parking lot. We looked around and found a lane just past it that led to the grassy fields behind a Montessori school, The All Stars Montessori School, in fact. And there's a shelter for our bikes with benches for sitting and cooking. Bingo! Life doesn't get any better than this. Luckily tomorrow's a holiday or this wouldn't be such a good option.

Took a walk down the lane to see the sheep out grazing in the pastures. Just as I imagined Ireland would look. So pastoral! We have horses whinneying, sheep baaing, and cows mooing....ahhhh...bliss! So much nicer than last night's campground. What was supper, you ask? Reconstituted refried black beans on tortillas with slices of avocado, zucchini, red pepper, and cheddar cheese! With "digestive" biscuits for dessert with chamomile tea steeped right from the dried flowers we got at at tea shop.

Stopped to get some water late this afternoon and the guy in the little shop said he didn't think I sounded American. I said Thank You! I said as an American, I never heard anyone tell me that they liked my accent. He said, "and you're not going to hear it from me, either!" "Well, I do like your accent!", said I.

And it's time to get warm and comfortable for the night.

BagLady

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Longest Day Yet

Saturday. June 2nd
Campground (for the showers!) at Ballykeeran on the east side of Lough Lee (lake Lee) just north of Athlone.

Overcast till evening, then rain.

No pics on iPhone today, sorry.

Dual languages: English and Irish. Gaelic is the Irish word for Irish.

Major frustrations with power for charging cell phone etc. Battery pack of rechargeable batteries is not holding the charge it can get from either an outlet (Fuat has a great converter device) or my solar panels (if the sun ever shines again). It worked fine at home. I used it as much as I could to continue to test it. Sent an email to manufacturer and their customer service is usually great. Maybe they'll send me a new one here:).

Did 48 miles today. I can't seem to switch my bike computer to kilometers. Don't know why and it's the least of my worries.

Lovely ride through rolling countryside. The houses are all built of cinder block then stuccoed over. The window frames are beautiful orangey brown wood. Wood is scarce so used little. Had to ask directions a lot but everyone is so helpful and happy. Even the drivers are patient and courteous sometimes having to hang back behind us a bit till its clear for them to get around. We saw a tractor trailer today that filled its half of the road. Two could not have passed each other!

In a campground tonight just for the showers. Had it not been late with rain just starting we could have showered and biked on to camp for free. Why pay for this noise? It's a 4 day weekend: Bank's Holiday.

Big thing here this week was the vote for an EU bailout. There were signs everywhere for both Yes and No. Yes won.




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"Lovely Weather"

Friday June 1
Ballivor, west of Trim
Overcast but dry..."lovely weather"




Narrow roads. No shoulders. Have I said that before? This cycling is not for the faint of heart:). You have to just trust that the drivers will not kill you. Some roads today were not wide enough for two cars to pass without them both going into the ditches. And large farm equipment and buses were on that road!
We visited the largest castle in Ireland. Built around 1200's by Hugh de Lacy. Defense design. Castle inside walls. Moat outside. Wooden stairs up to 2nd story main floor would be burned when attacked by Irishman because the dude who owned it was French.

We're not making much distance but we're not in any hurry. Besides neither of us trained for this so we're cycling into shape.

I could sure use a shower though. Tonight we're camped in the front of a vacant factory. Lovely grassy lawns. No one seems to mind. Right in town across from houses the kids wVed at us:)

Tomorrow night we're hoping to be in a campground outside of Athlone. Showers, I hope!

Haven't been in a pub for a Guiness yet (for Cheryl, of course) other than for water. We're not much for drinking.

Lights out. BagLady



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"Lovely Weather"

Friday June 1
Ballivor, west of Trim
Overcast but dry..."lovely weather"




Narrow roads. No shoulders. Have I said that before? This cycling is not for the faint of heart:). You have to just trust that the drivers will not kill you. Some roads today were not wide enough for two cars to pass without them both going into the ditches. And large farm equipment and buses were on that road!
We visited the largest castle in Ireland. Built around 1200's by Hugh de Lacy. Defense design. Castle inside walls. Moat outside. Wooden stairs up to 2nd story main floor would be burned when attacked by Irishman because the dude who owned it was French.

We're not making much distance but we're not in any hurry. Besides neither of us trained for this so we're cycling into shape.

I could sure use a shower though. Tonight we're camped in the front of a vacant factory. Lovely grassy lawns. No one seems to mind. Right in town across from houses the kids wVed at us:)

Tomorrow night we're hoping to be in a campground outside of Athlone. Showers, I hope!

Haven't been in a pub for a Guiness yet (for Cheryl, of course) other than for water. We're not much for drinking.

Lights out. BagLady



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Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Thursday May 31
Enfield Ireland
Rain



Woke up to rain. Surprise! Surprise! But it's harder to take when you're not yet in the touring rhythm. So we, after much angst, decided to stay put. Packing up in the rain is such a challenge and it didn't stop until the afternoon. By that time,why bother? So what do you do on a raining day on a cycle tour? Fuat says he's always wondered. Now he knows! Hang in the tent: reading and sleeping...lots! A local stopped by and since my side of the tent is always open (just like my windows at home) and faces the park roadway which is just 10 feet away, he chatted us up. He's Brian, the local barber. He loaned us his keys to the bathrooms. They were vandalized just last week so everything is locked up. You need a swipe card for the shower and we couldn't get that. Oh, well...could use a shower. It'll have to wait.

We then ventured into town on foot. I tried to get on wifi, but couldn't find some open anywhere. I did look for what was out there and tried going into a real estate office that had it according to my signal, but the girl didn't know the password. Nice try!

We're hearing a lot of Gaelic spoken here and it's on all the signs. A young boy said "it's Irish. We learn it in school. Gaelic is a sport like football, but you can pick up the ball." Ok???? We're more confused now than ever. Guess we'll have to ask a grownup.

Brian, the barber, suggested we go up to Trim Castle...it's about 14 km north but worth the trip. May help us to get on some smaller roads too. And since this is a trip with no particular route and if one person wants to do it, we do it (unless the other strongly objects, I guess). And that's how we're meandering...



Goodnight, BagLady

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Nice Legs!

Wed May 30th
Dublin
Exchange rate at bank 1.28

Today's the day. We gotta start this trip and just be brave. We'll figure this out. Right off the bat, we ran into trouble. We got to the end of the street we were staying at and Fuat said something about "one Way" and I thought he meant that the street we were turning onto was one way so I decided to pull out in to the right side. Oops! Cars coming at me! He meant the street we were staying on was a one way and we shouldn't have biked down the way we did. Men on the sidewalk were laughing at us and said "Wrong side!" Great start. We're gonna get killed before getting out of Dublin!

The next problem we had was making right turns. Feels so awkward and dangerous, especially in a big city! Sometimes we took to the crosswalks to avoid biking right turns. Luckily yesterday we had walked much of the area we had to bike around in so the streets were somewhat familiar. We still found ourselves wanting to turn down one ways the wrong way. Cross the streets and then getting back on the correct sides was a big challenge. I kept forgetting which direction to look first.

I did get a great compliment by one group of men as I biked by when one shouted "Nice legs!" Not bad for a 62 yr old dame!!!

I went into a bike shop trying to buy a can of Halt (pepper spray) to use on dogs if necessary. I don't like being down on their level unarmed. But it's illegal in Ireland. "Not so many criminals and not so vicious dogs in Ireland!"

Exchange rate at bank 1.28
Money changers expensive. Charged 1.33

Hard to find right roads. We're using hard copy maps and a new app that doesn't require wifi. It's so confusing. No one knows road names. The lady at the bank said she lives here and she can't figure out what street she's on. It got worse as we got out of town. Today I asked a guy coming from his house the name of the road and he gave me a shoulder shrug. His wife finally said it was Martin's Row and helped me understand that we were on the right road.

The next issue is that there are no shoulders AT ALL. And when there's some room, there's a wide dashed line with major metal reflectors that I have to straddle. Many times I have to just ride in the road. Everyone manages to get around us although I've had a couple of trucks take my breath away! Lots of thumbs up to Blaze. The kids especially like her. Fuat gets a lot of comments about his kitty litter panniers. The are a hoot! Been seeing lots of beautiful stone houses and hatched roofs. The windows are adorned with mostly lace curtains.

A few minor bike issues today too.
Squeaky front tire on Fuat's bike that he managed to fix by just removing the front tire and messing with it. Lots of moaning and groaning from Blaze. She's loaded to the withers!!

Haven't got the location of things worked out yet. Need both best location for ease of access and to be able to remember where things are:).

Stopped just past Enfield to spend the night at a "scenic picnic spot" on the Royal Canal. Some local school children were playing in the park with a video camera and came over to interview me. I loved their excitement and curiosity! I told them I had a blog, gave them a card, and took their picture. Now they're FAMOUS!



Aren't they great!!!

One boy asked if he could give me a hug. "Of course! " BagLady never passes up a hug.

It stays light quite late here, like until 10:30 or later, but I'm pretty tired and still don't feel quite adjusted yet.

Tomorrow we change our route to see if we can find more secondary roads. It will be a challenge and take frequent stops to be sure we know where we are on the maps, but hopefully the traffic will be less.

More adventure awaits!