IRELAND - THE END OF OUR JOURNEY

Ireland

We sailed across the Irish Sea on the fast ferry.  The crossing was calm but it was announced that the ferry would not run tomorrow because of forecast gale winds. We were very glad we had not planned to ride for a few days and we stayed with our hosts Brian and Mary in Dublin. The weather meant it was a good time to visits museums and Dublin has a couple of excellent ones where we spent hours learning more about Irish history, with particular interest in recent history of the past one hundred years.

Mary and Brian were both knowledgeable and passionate about their country so our stay with them was not only a pleasure but interesting.  Mary is learning to play the Irish Bodhran , the accordion and the ukulele ,all three at once, and invited us to a music gathering where she was participating, so we had Guinness and music to make an enjoyable evening.   Brian rode with us the day we left and took us through Phoenix Park to avoid the traffic madness that is Dublin. It is a very large park and supports about one hundred deer, but we did not see them.

The weather was still kind to us, it was cold but did not rain. Temperature was eleven degrees, five above normal for this time of the year.  The roads were very busy as we made our way west.  Bad weather was forecast for Friday so there was pressure to reach the Cliffs of Moher by Thursday.  The days were short, we cannot leave before nine o’clock because it is not light enough and it is dusk at four o’clock and dark by four thirty so we need to be off the road by three thirty.

When we could we took minor roads to avoid traffic and take in the countryside, but this was not always possible.  The narrow country lanes were a pleasure to ride on, there was very little traffic as we passed small farms with cows and sheep, but no agriculture. Hedges lined the lanes and they gave us protection from the wind.  The countryside of Ireland has changed, large houses built in the boom time are everywhere, sadly some were abandoned when hard times came.

We stayed in Bed and Breakfast places in Ireland and we had to be careful not to ask for a full English breakfast, here it is an Irish breakfast, same food but different country. Things are more expensive in Ireland, the further west we have come the dearer the cost of living. Travelling through Kane, Birr, Portarlington and Portumna we came to Loch Derg, at Mt Shannon.  We stopped for a while to admire this lovely part of the country and went to the jetty where a ferry takes people across to Holy Island but it is too late in the year and the ferry was not running. 

We stayed in Ennis, our last night on the road.  This area is familiar to us from previous trips and we enjoyed revisiting the town, all lit up for Christmas. On our last day of riding we had mixed feelings.  Happy that we were almost at the end of a long trip and excited we had made it. Sad because we have had such a good time and found it hard to believe we will not be riding any more. The good weather was still with us as we got to Ennistymen, then Lahinch, Liscannor and finally the Cliffs of Moher.  We walked along the cliffs in a stiff breeze, took some photos and then went to stay with Julie.

When we first set out on this trip we planned to ride out of our front gate and end the trip riding into the yard of Mike’s cousin Philip who lived in the house which has been occupied by the family for  centuries.   Sadly Philip passed away before we arrived here.  The end of the trip was a bit of an anti climax, as we had no one to celebrate our achievement with.  Julie was Philip’s partner and it was great to be able to stay with her.

Mike caught up with distant relatives and we spent a couple of nights in Mc Hughs pub Liscannor until one o’clock in the morning talking about who was related to who and laughing about things which happened years ago.

The weather did change on Friday, we had gale force winds and rain. We were so fortunate to arrive when we did. We rode all the way through England, Wales and Ireland without being rained on in winter, unbelievable.

This is the last entry of the blog.  Thank you to everyone who has followed our progress across the world, your support has encouraged us along the way.  We will catch up with you all when we get home

Julie

At he pub

HOORAY !!!! The Cliffs of Moher - We made it !!!!!!!!.

La Hinch - 10 klms to go

Loch Derg

Irish countryside

The Irish Countryside

With our hosts Brian and Mary

Around Dublin

Mole brurrows in Wales

 

Wales

We were still experiencing cold but dry weather and appreciated the warmer than usual weather.  We crossed into Wales and were able to ride on small hedge lined roads for most of the day, only problem there was nowhere to eat until about three o’clock when we came across The Aquaduct pub. Saw squirrels for the first time here. Wales is rural with hills and sheep and lots of evidence of moles with little piles of dirt across the fields. We were up and down hills all day until we reached Betwyn-y-co-ed where therewas yet another Christmas fair with the streets all lit up, all the shops were open and there was a lantern parade with a drum band. It was nice to join in the festivities and feel part of the community. Next stop was Llanberis and Snowdon, with a steep ride up of 10 klms up to get over the pass with a fast descent into the town. Llanberis is a town where all the locals speak Welsh, the schools conduct all lessons in Welsh. At the hotel where we stayed all the staff spoke Welsh to each other, but spoke English to us.  We walked up Mount Snowdon, a few hours walking to the summit.  It was a cold day and very misty at the top so no views.  There was some snow on the ground which must have fallen a fews days ago and the dampness in the air has frozen on the rocks.

The ride from Llanberis to Holyhead was up and down and then we crossed over the bridge to the Anglesea Peninsula to book our ferry passage for Dublin.

The hotel told us to take the bikes into our room

Walking up Snowdon

Llanberis

 

 

 

England

 Lovely as it was to spend time relaxing, we had to push on with the task at hand – to reach the West Coast of Ireland before the weather became too cold and to be back in England for Christmas. The trees still had their autumn colour, unusual for this time of the year but the summer had been a warm one and the weather was milder than usual.  We rode on the fairly busy road the first day and while the motorists were considerate we were a bit nervous as the roads were narrow and had no shoulder to give us space to get road off the road. The weather was fine but cold and we were rugged up to keep warm. When we got to Winchester we stopped off to see the cathedral, a very impressive building with interesting history. It has magnificent ceilings and stained glass windows, and is quite different from the Roman basilicas. In the grounds was a large Christmas Fair so we explored this. As we travelled around we found most towns and cities had Christmas fairs. We had trouble getting accommodation a there was something happening in the city and places were full.  As we stood in the street pondering our plight, David, a man who was born in Winchester but migrated to Canada, only to have his daughter marry a local man from Winchester and he now spends half his time in each country, approached us and invited us to stay at his place.  We were both pleased and surprised by his invitation which we readily accepted.  He sent a text to his wife who was babysitting “ Joseph and Mary have arrived, there is not room at the inn” .  We had fish and chips for dinner and a great night talking about travels, his and ours.

We had no option but to stay on the very busy road the next day so we were glad to find a small old pub off the beaten track and recommended by a women where we had lunch. We had dinner in the bar and where a couple of dogs sat with their owners, one sitting on his owner’s knee with his head resting on the bar.  No one else took any notice so it must be normal in these parts.

The next day we were able to ride for part of the way on a small, quiet country road which was much more enjoyable. Up and down hills all day, we saw many pheasants flying or in the hedges and also as road kill. We arrived in Oxford to find our hosts Caitlin from USA and Francis form South Africa, students and keen cyclists. We spent two days here exploring the city. Another Christmas fair to investigate and we joined a walking tour of the city taking in Exeter College.  Oxford university is comprised of thirty eight private campuses so of course there are lots of students everywhere and more bikes than we ever saw in China. It is also the most multicultural place we have seen in England with takeaways from every imaginable part of the globe.

Evesham was our next stop, a town on the Avon River which in the summer is packed with tourists but we have the place to ourselves in the cold winter.  We stayed in a lovely five hundred year old pub, “Ye Old Red Horse”, had dinner in the bar and helped a table sitting next to us who were competing in a quiz night. Mike also likes these hotels as they all serve a full English breakfast.

At long last we were able to take a quieter road riding through small villages and a bike path along a river for a while. We had a warm showers host in Bwedley, a small village on our route. We paused in the town to ask directions and spoke to Chris who told us he had ridden from UK to China in 2000 and that he had written a book, “Why Don’t You Fly” about his journey. He was quite chuffed to find out we had read his book as part of our preparation for our trip and we were delighted to have met him. We found our hosts Bernie and David down a small lane; David had a roast in the oven and was making bread. It is always so nice to arrive at the home of hosts where a warm welcome is much appreciated and the opportunity to exchange “tour” stories abounds. David and Bernie were touring in the mountains of USA earlier this year and had a great time.

Lots of hills for the next few days. We had lunch at Northbridge, a small town with a nice café, the kind you see in Miss Marples, then we stopped at the Iron Bridge, the first iron bridge built and hailed as the beginning of the industrial revolution. We walked over the bridge which is now pedestrian only and walked through the pleasant little town.  We rode along small country lanes lines with hedges which kept the wind from us and had very little traffic, it was good to be off the busy roads.  We had to venture out onto a bigger road as we neared Shewsbury. We were fortunate to have another warm showers host here, Jon and Angela. Jon had cooked dinner and made sour dough bread, there is a bit of a theme about hosts and bread making.  We were keen to learn about sour dough making being bread makers ourselves. Jon and Angela are seasoned tourers and are planning a trip to Germany.  

The Iron Bridge

Our hosts at Bwedley Brian and Bernie

Bewdley and surrounds

Ye Old Red Horse

Oxford

Wrapped up in our winer gear against the cold

David rescued us from the streets of Winchester

Winchester Cathedral

 France

When we reached Ventimelia on the border we still could not get a train which would take the bikes to Paris.  We had to catch another train all the way to Nice, passing through Monaco, on the way and then book an overnight train which would take us and the bikes, to Paris.  At first the railway staff said this was not possible but an Australian couple who could speak French came to our rescue and spoke to them, then miraculously it was possible after all, but we could not board tonight’s train as we had not booked in advance . We had a twenty four hour wait in Nice so we spent the day enjoying the lovely weather and walking along the promenade.  It was twelve degrees when we left Milan and Nice which was a lovely twenty two degrees.  We caught the train the next evening and travelled overnight arriving in Paris the next morning to a freezing eight degrees.  

We had planned to ride on a bike track, The Avenue Verte, all the way to Dieppe where we were to catch the ferry to England but we had lost too much time and it was raining. Such a shame to be in Paris and not get a chance to look around, but we have been here before and time on Heather’s visa is running out.  With the help of Etienne, a very nice young man, we found somewhere to stay and caught yet another train to Dieppe.  Once in Dieppe we booked our passage on the ferry to England for the evening and rode out to our warm showers host, Frances. The twenty three kilometer ride through the French countryside was beautiful, France is such a lovely place and it brought back memories of riding here ten years ago.  Frances has a ceramics business and works between Dieppe in France and Brighton in England.  She has a large house in Dieppe which she is renovating and we were very happy to stay with her after the hectic last few days, especially as she was a terrific cook. The next day we rode back into Dieppe to catch the ferry, it was a relief to have made it out of the Schengen countries with just one day to spare.

We had a smooth crossing to Newhaven, we could not believe that we had finally made it to England. We were not stopped at customs, they stamped our passports and we pedaled off up the road. We rode to Brighton along a cycle track, it was such a novelty to ask for directions and get a reply in English. Remembering that we now rode on the left hand side of the road was a bit tricky and we really had to think what we were doing at the first round about we came to.

It was a day’s ride to reach Mike’s sister Noreen and her husband Ken’s place in Sussex so we booked into a hotel and Mike really enjoyed his first English breakfast of sausages, bacon, baked beans, eggs, hash browns, tomatoes , mushrooms and real toast with butter.

When we arrived at Sussex we were greeted with hugs and kisses. We spent the next few days talking nonstop up and catching up with nieces and nephew and their families, there had been four additions to the family since we were here last.

Arriving at Noreen and Ken.s

France