WRAPPING IT UP

July 20-27, 2004

This last week in Ireland we are spending with our great Ordinance Survey Maps, choosing the small, scenic roads for bicycling.  We have now cycled most of the roads between Gorey on the north, Enniscorthy on the west, Blackwater on the South and the coast road on the east.

We also went back over to Inistioge one day, starting in another scenic town, Graiguenamanagh, and riding out over the hills to Inistioge, then taking back roads to Thomastown and back across the hills to the G town again.  It was a lovely ride.

We finished out the week bicycling and on Sunday we went to the Vintage Steam Rally in Courtnacuddy.  We had very good weather for the last half of the week and took some excellent bike rides in the territory west of the Highway N11.  The steam rally was another one of those cute local events with kids in costumes having a parade, and a dog show where the judge didn’t choose the finest dog, but the one she liked best and everybody got a prize.  There was butter making and fresh bread cooked over an open fire in a Dutch Oven, an old wheat thresher chunking away and car boot sales of all manner of strange things. 

Monday we cleaned house and did the laundry and then headed back to Dunboyne.  We took the back road into Gorey and then hooked up with the N11 to follow the coast north and into Dublin.  The computer said the trip should take about 2 hours, so we allowed 4, but it really only took us a little less than 3.  Approaching Dublin the connection to the bypass ring road is not completed, but we were even able to navigate that quite efficiently.  We checked in to our airport Travelodge, which was supposed to have king beds, but didn’t, and then took a walk around the town checking for a car wash and bus stops and schedules to the airport, since the hotel didn’t provide a shuttle either.  After getting the car washed and picking up some wines for dinner we headed over to the home of our exchangers, Liam and Aileen Patel.

The trip from where we were staying over to Dunboyne should have taken us 15 minutes.  It was an easy, all freeway route.  That is what I thought, anyway.  But, of course, there was construction going on and somehow we missed the interchange from one major freeway to another and ended up driving around the Dublin suburbs for 45 minutes.

We finally arrived at the Patel house about a half an hour late, and were warmly welcomed by the whole family, Liam, Aileen, Hana (age 3) and Nisha (age 1).  The girls are very cute and full of personality.  Nisha wasn’t afraid of me a bit and came right over to me and sat in my lap.  Hana was so excited she couldn’t stop talking and running and bouncing back and forth around the living room.  We had a lot of fun talking to her and reading books.

After the girls went to bed Liam went to get some takeout Indian meals and we adults had a good time swapping stories and visiting.  The evening passed very quickly and it was after 11 when Liam dropped us off back at our hotel.

With typical going home anxiety, Don and I woke up very early on Tuesday morning and were all ready to head out for the airport by 8am.  We caught a cab with a very nice guy who confirmed that the cabbie that took us to Dunboyne when we first arrived had way over-charged us.  We knew that in our hearts.  Oh, well.

As has been the trend on this trip, our flight departed late, but we still got into New York in plenty of time to go through customs and check in for our next flight.  The clerk at the American Airlines check in counter cheerfully informed us that our flight had been discontinued, so we had been rebooked on a flight that left 3 hours later, hadn’t we been informed?  This was the first we had heard about it.  So we spent another 6 hours sitting in the airport people watching.  This delay put us into San Jose at around 10pm, and Gary picked us up and took us home.  It was good to be home, take a shower and snuggle into our own comfy bed.

Summary comments on Ireland:

Beautiful country, nice people.

Most of the people we met  have  ties to the USA.
 

Drivers go way too fast for road conditions.

The car color of choice seems to be red.  My survey says 40%-50% of cars are red.

Main highways go right through the city centers, small towns, and Dublin, resulting in major traffic jams.

There are no street signs, so you seldom know where you are.

Great fan support of local teams.

Expensive groceries and wine.

Lots of new home construction going on.  Country looks prosperous.