Killarney to Killorglin - Cycling in Ireland

We had our first Irish breakfast this morning at our B&B: oj, toast, brown break, fried egg, sausage, bacon (of the canadian variety I think), and lots of coffeeeee. Mmmmmm. So we dressed out in our bike gear, loaded down with the stuff we thought we might need throughout the day, and took off. Irish Cycle Hire has people that will come and pick up our luggage and transport it to our next B&B, pretty convenient that.

Photo: Dad and I had to adapt to riding on the wrong side of the road PDQ so, you know, we wouldn't get run over or anything

Our first destination was the Gap of Dunloe, basically a very skinny road cutting between two mountains, which we could have explored on foot, on our bikes, or by pony cart, but Dad thought the weather might close in and so we pushed on. Not really a hard ride at all, skipped through a couple little villages, and found our way to our B&B (outside of town, again) in Killorglin. Cute little place, famous for the Puck Fair it holds every August 10-12, where they capture a wild goat, bring it to town, crown it king of the festivities, and party down for 48 straight. My kind of people.

Photo, right: the town of Killorglin

Photo, below: road sign in Ballykissane. My interpretation is "don't drive your car off a giant square into the wavy lines below - its a big drop!"

Dad and I arrived kind of early in the day, and saw on the map a road labeled "to Ballykissane", which if you have ever heard of the show Ballykissangel, that's the place that it gets its name and is slightly based off of (maybe). Up a hill, down a hill, down some country lanes, all the way to the river, and back again. Found the "Ballykissane Monument", but don't know what it was for since it was in Gaelic, so we went down a road that thought led back to town, and by some chance happened to be right. That never happens.

Then we went down to a restaurant near the water where they served some awesome fish, and had some beer. Not much going on in these little places, especially today, which was a semi-final all-gaelic football game between Kerry and Cork, so everyone and their goat was inside watching the game while we were out riding around and enjoying the sunshine.

Photo, right: every day should end with a pint of beer. And yes, I tried Guiness, but I'm an ale and lager girl myself, so after my obligatory stout, I stuck to the Harp. Mmmmm.