Your Beautiful Country

An Iowan

I'm sittting in a hotel in Dublin getting ready to back to my home in Iowa of the USA. I just spent two weeks in your lovely country and wanted to thank you for your help in making my trip a memorable one. A couple of months ago I posted a rough draft of my route and your input helped me immensely.

I was here for two weeks and was able to ride five days. I was able to rent a very nice road bike from a fellow in Dublin at a very fair price.

My first day (4/6/09) was from Dublin to Wexford. On someone's advice from here, I did the Wicklow mountains instead of the coast and rode 106 miles. The toughest part of the day was getting out of Dublin. Between a late night in the Temple Bar district and trying to figure out your street system, was difficult. I used a Garmin 705 and eventually found my way out and made my way through Sally Gap and down past the falls at Glenmacnass and left the mountains at Arklow town and followed the coast to Wexford town. It was an exhilarating ride.

The second day (5/6/09), I rode 85 miles from Wexford to Dungarvan along the coast. Another stunning ride especially the closer I got to Dungarvan and it was also the first time I had the experience of riding the ferry at Ballyhack, again a suggestion from someone here; ther are not many ferries in Iowa. Unfortunately I took a spill on some loose gravel at about 70 miles into the ride; I'm still limping.

After a few days off for rain to heal (8/6/09), I took a relatively short trip
of 48 miles from Tralee to Killkee. Rode the Shannon Ferry and had another wonderful experience; the weather wasn't the best but upon arriving, I spent the late afternoon in the Hicky's Pub at the Bayview Inn bed and breakfast where we stayed. It was by far my best pub experience because of the people. If you get a chance, you should stop in and say hi to Mary and hello from the guy from Iowa.

(10/6/09), After a planned day off to check out where my ancesters were from in County Westmeath near Athlone, I rode a stunning 98 miles. Heading southwest out of Moycullen, just outside of Galway to Westport. I rode to the coast and passed through a beautifully desolate area of Connemara, again, the suggestion of someone from here, and then to Clifden before heading onto Westport.

My last ride of this trip (11/6/09) was 82 miles from Westport to Sligo passing through Castlebar, Ballina, where I had lunch and watched men fly fish in the river in the middle of town, and Inniscrone among others; again with input recieved here. It was another stunning coastal ride.

That was the last ride of my trip because of weather and doing touristy things like a ferry to Scotland, but I saw many other sights in your beautiful country. Again, thank you so much for your input.

Gavin

That's great, glad you enjoyed it ! What's it like cycling over here compared with Iowa ?

markopantelic

cheers mate. welcome in ireland europe anytime

An Iowan

Your peaceful coexistence between the cars and bikes is unbelieveable. I'm always getting honked at in Iowa and it never occurred over here. Otherwise, your roads are not quite at the standards as ours are.

dalkener

Fair play to you Iowan, that's some going.

Hoping to do my own tour of Ireland next year and I might even use your experience as a template.

Glad you enjoyed it!!

blorg

Glad you enjoyed your trip, to be honest it sounds great and probably the sort of thing that most of us here who actually live in the place have never got around to doing!

You are an inspiration to us, must get out again and do something similar here (although RAGBRAI also appeals )

Ghost Rider

I'm not surprised you found the roads dodgier than in Iowa but I am surprised you found the drivers more courteous!

thebouldwhacker

You should keep in touch. We could get a boards ride in Iowa..... hmmm:rolleyes:

kincsem

Good trip. Some serious mileage there. If I remember correctly you or your family were worried aboout your safety before the trip. It seems like that was ok.
I might have mentioned Ballina and Enniscrone a few months ago. My brother phoned during the week from Enniscrone to say they had massive rain. :eek:

Congratulations.

sy

You are very welcome.
You might be interested in reading "Round Ireland in Low Gear" by Eric Newby just in case you might return! Sorry I missed your initial post

scottreynolds

An Iowan wrote: »

Your peaceful coexistence between the cars and bikes is unbelieveable.

Otherwise, your roads are not quite at the standards as ours are.

That about sums up Ireland... Just let you know. We always complain about both.

Gavin

After cycling in Hawaii and the beeping one gets off drivers, cycling in Ireland, on backroads in wicklow is fantastic. Road surface yeah, is crap.

Civilian_Target

An Iowan wrote: »

Between a late night in the Temple Bar district and trying to figure out your street system, was difficult.

I love the way you say street system as if was built with some sort of logic in mind

eggie

Civilian_Target wrote: »

I love the way you say street system as if was built with some sort of logic in mind

So True.

Húrin

An Iowan wrote: »

Your peaceful coexistence between the cars and bikes is unbelieveable. I'm always getting honked at in Iowa and it never occurred over here. Otherwise, your roads are not quite at the standards as ours are.

Thanks for taking the time to write a note of thanks. If you have photos and time why not put up a few on www.crazyguyonabike.com ?

I'm surprised that you're always getting 'honked' at in Iowa. I would have thought that the roads there would all be wide enough to comfortably accomodate both types of vehicle.

dave2pvd

Húrin wrote: »

I'm surprised that you're always getting 'honked' at in Iowa. I would have thought that the roads there would all be wide enough to comfortably accomodate both types of vehicle.

So many roads in the US are plenty wide. The problem is that drivers hate cyclists. Especially in rural areas.

Thanks for the trip report Iowan!

ednwireland

you missed the best bit though (Donegal)
i'm biased
good report