Yesterday we started our tour of the upper half of the Irish coastline on a 1100km journey. Miraculously the sun was shining after a week of mixed weather (that is another way of saying we had quite a bit of rain). Panic at the car park where the Flowbird app would not work. Eventually paid by machine and panic over. Went to nearby cafe for lunch where the food was good but a bit chaotic. Frank ordered soup- sorry no soup of the day today. Cottage pie then- yes ok. 10 mins later- sorry no cottage pie left, ok fish and chips then - 10 mins later fish and chips only problem was it was getting near to the time to be at the ferry terminal, so threw the fish down and a few chips before rushing to the ferry, coffee half drunk. Is this a good way to start the tour? The ferry from Holyhead arrived in Dublin at 6pm and eventually regrouped at 6.40 before cycling the three miles to the Gresham hotel on the north side of the river Liffey. We dragged our bikes up the steps into the foyer of a posh hotel only to be accosted
by the security staff who were horrified at such a brazen attack on their reputation. We stood our ground and agreed to vacate as soon as we had our room keys. The desk took forever to deal with the rooms and payment and then told us they could not store the bikes and we had to use a nearby public car park. We duly went there only to discover it was actually free but we needed a QR code on our phones to gain access. We pressed the buzzer for a member of staff to educate Oscar in the
practicalities of obtaining the code. The rest of us were stood there in technical oblivion with blank expressions whist all this went on. Once inside the car park we were told that only the strongest locks would do, which meant lumping the bikes together with the few good locks we had between us. Tony and Deborah to the rescue. Apparently, even though it was a with cameras, recent thefts had occurred.
for dinner, which was extremely busy. The rest had to join the throngs in town to find sustenance. I can vouch for the chicken curry, which was wonderful.
Today has been a leisurely morning discovering the delights of this vibrant city after breakfast of everything you could ever want.
At 2pm we retrieved our bikes and took the private hired coach to Galway for our stay in a hostel near Eyre Square. The terrain by the road was green and flat with beef cattle, sheep and a few milk cows and the odd horse. The motorway was very to our hectic roads and the driver kept it on auto cruise the whole way.
The hostel is a busy small pub with decent rooms and showers with no room for bikes. We took the bikes to the local Haynes car park and the attendant packed us into one car park space for 16 Euros. Perfect.
Next thing is the evening meal, maybe eating in our pub, 13 on the Square. We may even have to join in the karaoke/ Irish singer, which is blasting out as I write this. Some may not like it and I
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