Saturday, June 2, 2012

"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!