16 July, Thursday
It's so great to be in one place for at.least two nights and at Barbara's house we couldn't be happier. She made us a full Irish breakfast, much like the Scottish breakfast but it also included 'vanilla pudding' along with the 'black pudding'. Now,we know that black pudding is made out of blood, but the vanilla pudding threw us off a bit. Again, I overdosed on the Irish butter!
When we first arrived yesterday we noticed in Barbara's house, a brochure about electric bikes rented by #IrelandbyBike. The one thing on our list that we hadn't done in Ireland was to ride bikes. We thought we'd lost our chance in Westport with their amazing ride out to the peninsula, but here was an opportunity. The weather was a wee bit gloomy, but we were here and so, why not? We drove to a little town called, Carrick, and could not find the place...it was operated from a home. We stopped into the local grocery store and asked, and of course everyone knew everyone and between the clerk and a random man who walked into the store, we found Shamise's home straight away. Everyone knew Shamise who started renting out bikes! http://irelandbybike.com
I know, I know, me, a biker, renting an electric bike? Darn tootin! It was so much fun! We giggled the entire first hour laughing at how easy it was to start up and to pedal! We took the 'Ancient Self Tour' and visited ancient burial grounds, which look like piles of rocks strategically placed on top of each other. Silver Strand, was another stop which is a beautiful beach that we had to get to by walking straight down the side of the mountain down some 200 narrow steps (my thighs were burning!)
A little hungry and a wee bit chilled we headed to the Silver Strand Cafe to grab a cup of coffee and to split a tuna wrap, which was delicious, or maybe we were really hungry after biking 10 miles! Surrounding Ireland are towers, built in the 1800s as a way of communicating should enemies attack. All we could think was "The beacon has been lit. Gondor calls for aid. And Rohan will answer!" And, then as we gazed out on the Atlantic and saw the cloud of rain moving inland we thought, "Let's get back our bikes and get back to Carrick!" We only stopped to pet a beautiful dog outside of the cafe and we started riding.
Riding in the rain we have done, but riding in the cold, with gale-force winds, we have not...until now! We stopped and got completely bundled up (thanks, Kathy Langr for the bandana) and pedaled as fast as we could on our electric bikes which really don't go very fast and are still difficult when going uphill. We rode past one of the burial grounds and saw three sheep taking shelter under them. How do they know to do that? We kept riding to our next stop and the rain let up a bit. This stop was just another cliff view, so we pedaled again until we reached the Heritage Center where Mackenzie finally found the perfect ring! She now has 12 rings she wears on her 10 fingers...you heard me right!
The cool thing about this gift shop was that it had an actual standing stone that had been moved from a nearby field that was close to the road and it was in danger of being hit. I laid both hands on it and Mackenzie dramatically started calling "mom! Mom?" As if I'd disappeared. (For all of you Oulander Fans). She was very convincing.
Time to bike on! We road through a beautiful town and then straight up into the highlands of Donegal! Highlands? On electric bikes? Holy moly! It was so difficult! And, it was raining like cats and dogs (why is this a saying!?) anyhow, we were drenced! But, for some reason we loved every minute of it. We laughed the entire time, talked about life, sang, and thanked God that we were riding bikes in Ireland!
Well, we decided that we weren't drenched enough and it had stopped raining so we hopped in Gerard and drove to one of the spots where we didn't ride on our bikes because of the rain: Slieve League. Slieve League are actually cliffs...at 800 feet, the highest in Europe (so why are the cliffs of Moher so popular?) We parked our car at the bottom of the 1.2 mile walk up to the cliffs and began to walk and you guessed it...the rain began again and the gale force winds began...we walked anyway. And, as we walked, cars began to pass us...apparently driving up to the cliffs is allowed (missed that memo and so did about a dozen other people). The view was beautiful even in the rain and we turned around to walk down and I swear the wind picked up. We sorta ran down the hill with the wind pushing us along the way.
Drenched and tired we hurried home to Barbara's delicious tea in her warm sitting room by her fireplace. We actually wanted something to eat and this was our lastnight on the west side of Ireland so we went, on Barbara's recommendation, to the Castle Bar. I splurged on the 20 Euro Lobster special and 2 of Donegal Bay's oysters and Mackenzie had a ceasar salad. We were so tired and prayed for a parking space and for a comfy place in the restaurant and we got a spot right near the restaurant and got a table with padded benches and a really funny waiter. Those small answered prayers are such a blessing!
Home to bed. I actually was asleep for the first time before midnight!
Peace,
The Traveling Women
Tip of the Day: When a truck allows you to pass on the road, blink your hazzards for a few seconds and you will be rewarded with the truck's flashing headlights...it's the code of the road!
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