The Emerald Isle - a magical place...

Carol and I recently returned from a bicycling vacation to Ireland.  We’ve visited Ireland several times before, but our previous visits had always been a few days extended onto a business trip, or as was the case last year, a long weekend getaway at the midpoint between Carol in Philly and me in Dubai. We never truly explored anything beyond a day’s trip from Dublin.  But, these brief and geographically limited encounters left us determined to experience the country more fully.  To us, that typically means by bicycle, self-powered on two wheels.  We signed up for a Backroads trip that traversed the southwestern portion of the country. Luckily we were able to convince our dear friends, Marc & Susie, to join us!

The Irish leg of our journey began in Dublin with a very pleasant 2.5 hour cross-country train ride to Cork.  Over the next week we ventured from Cork to Kenmare, Kenmare to Bantry, Bantry to Kinsale, and Kinsale back to Cork for a return train ride to Dublin and then back to the U.S.

Here's a link to higher quality versions of the pictures embedded below, and more:  https://adobe.ly/2pz67OR

Cork:

We arrived in Cork on Friday afternoon and spent the rest of the day and Saturday exploring it on foot prior to being collected by our Backroads leaders on Sunday for the cycling portion of our trip.

I suspect I’ll ruffle some Irish feathers with this, but I’d describe Cork as a smaller version of Dublin. It was clearly a city vs. a small town. Like Dublin, it had all of the charm & pub culture you’d expect from an Irish city, but it also had sections with a modern vibe and an up-scale culinary scene.

We particularly enjoyed the sights and smells of the English Market, the expansive city views from the bell tower of St Anne's Church, strolling along Oliver Plunkett street, and the informative yet entertaining guided tour of Elizabeth Fort.

 

 

 

Kenmare and the Beara Peninsula:

We shuttled from Cork to Kenmare where we met our group, including our excellent Backroads guides (Jeffery, Kalea, and Zach). We enjoyed our first meal together and were fitted to our two-wheeled steeds for the week.  Our first cycling adventure was a 25 mile warm-up ride including a climb up to "Moll's Gap" where we had commanding views of the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks mountain range and Ireland's highest mountain, Carrauntoohil at 1038 meters. Our guides said the views were the best they had seen all year. We were off to a good start!

 

 

 

The second day of the tour was the longest as it circumnavigated 66 miles around the Beara Peninsula. You’ve probably heard of the “Ring of Kerry”.  It’s a very popular drive around the Iveragh Peninsula on the N70.  Our guides tell us the Beara Peninsula to the south is more scenic and is much less travelled. I can’t judge if our route was more scenic than the Ring of Kerry, but it’s hard to imagine it being more Irish! The weather cooperated until the last 20 miles where we were met with a steady rain. We’re in Ireland, it’s not called the Emerald Isle because of its dry climate! We came prepared and I actually enjoyed the ride in the rain. Hey, I didn’t have to clean up the bikes 😊

 

 

 

Kenmare to Bantry:

Day three took us from Kenmare to Glengarriff with a climb up Caha Pass, marked with a dark and slightly intimidating tunnel at the summit, and then on to the small fishing town of Bantry. Side trips included a scenic & quiet ride through Glengarriff Nature Reserve and a short ferry to Garanish Island.  The skies were blue, the route was fantastic, and we finished the day with a whiskey tasting presided over by an incredibly knowledable local expert. It was as fascinating as it was tasty.  It doesn’t get much better than this!

 

   

 

 

 

Leap to Kinsale:

We started day four with a full breakfast in the hotel like every other morning. However, instead of hopping on our bikes, we jumped into a transport van for a short shuttle to the town of Leap (pronounced Lep). Similar to most Irish taxi drivers, our shuttle driver was full of local information, history, and not short on opinion. It made the 45 minute trip fly by!

Today’s route took us along the southern coast, past beautiful sandy beaches (who knew Ireland had beaches?), up and over the steep hills between the numerous bays, past the ancient Timoleague Abbey, and finally into the beautiful town of Kinsale, the self proclaimed culinary capital of Ireland. The weather was spectacular with perfect cycling temperatures and bountiful blue skies dotted with just enough puffy white clouds to provide a pleasent contrast.

 

 

 

Our final day on the bikes was scenic tour of the countryside surrounding Kinsale. It started with Kalea's innovative approach to describing today's route which began with a climb up to Charles Fort, providing a commanding view of the Kinsale harbor. We then circled back to cross the River Brandon, continued on to the Lusitania Museum and Old Head Golf Club, past Garylucas beach to Ballinrae South, and finished with a long loop around Ballinspittle before returning back to Kinsale. The weather Gods smiled on us again as we started the day with brilliant blue skies that evolved to but a spit of Irish mist at the end of the day.

 

 

 

We ended the day sharing a few pints of Guinness (or Cork based Murphy’s should one favor a more local stout) with our group listening to some delightful traditional Irish music in a local pub followed by a lovely dinner in Kinsale.

The final morning of our trip included a walking tour of Kinsale with a local historian. Amongst many little tidbits, we learned that the ancient warriors sharpened their swords as they entered church and that Irish doors, and subsequently houses, are painted bright colors in rebellion of their English rulers who told them they should be of a dark color.

 

 

We regretfully said our goodbyes to our friends, both new & old, and to our inspirational leaders who were already mentally preparing for their next week’s much larger groups (23 guests for Jeffery and 26 for Zach & Kalea). We boarded a bus to take us to the Cork train station where we would begin our journey home.

As they say, all good things must come to an end, and this trip was indeed a "good thing".  Ireland is a wonderfully beautiful country with some of the most friendly, accommodating, and just plain "fun" people we have ever met.  I doubt this will be our last visit!