Greetings from Ireland!

We find that we are constantly behind in the narrative of our blogs. For the most up to date news and great statistics on our trip, check out the column to the left; for anecdotes and photos, follow the narrative.

Out with a haie!

The Gorés lined up on in two lines on either side of us as we biked away, cheering us on to our next adventures. Joe explained to me that this tradition is a haie, which means hedge.

Gavottes: the deliciousness

The thinnest of Bréton crepes, coated in salty caramel, rolled up, coated in chocolate, and sliced into bite-sized pieces. You gotta try this.

Fete nationale!

After buying tickets online in St Malo, we biked across the peninsula to the shore of the Mont Saint Michel Baie. In the curve of the bay, we looked across to the Mont glowing gold in the distance and ate paté (from the Gorés) and pasta ("Tastes like pasta and paté), washed down with San Pellegrino sparkling water (from the Mitchells). Later, we watched the towns around the bay light up as darkness fell, and we were treated to four separate fireworks shows around 11 pm, little balls of colored light exploding on the horizon.

Le Mutant

An elusive supermarket.

At lunch, we spied le Mont St Michel, a monastery at the top of a pointy rock, known for the fact that it's cut off from the mainland at high tide:

Train service in this part of France is thin. With 30 kilometers to go to get Avranches in just 2.5 hours, we booked it out of there!

La journaliste

We met a most interesting journalist in the tiny (weeeee, itty bitty!) train station. Outstandingly stylish, she asked us all kinds of questions about our trip, and then talked with us until she got off about Hollywood stars, and her theories on the philosophy and psychology of the trade. We were sad to see her get off the train.

SNCF bathrooms
Bicycle-laden, we were urged onto the back of the next train by the conductor, where we found ourselves in first class. What nice bathrooms to find after that long, sweaty stretch of road!

Cherbourg
After a bottle of Normandy cider, we biked west out of the city to camp near the beach that night. That's good sleepin'.
Day 21, July 16

Cappucinos
Shake powdered milk with a little less water and you get foam:

Pay it forward
It was great having an entire day in a city! We were running around doing various last-minute errands, when Joe stumbled upon a wallet. Leaping gleefully on this new adventure, we dropped our current task and zipped and zoomed around Cherbourg in search of its owner. "My, aren't you honest!" the teller at the bank said to Joe as she looked up Mme Mettes' address. Turns out she lives in a retiree house right near where Joe found the wallet. She wasn't home, but Joe left her number and got a lovely phonecall from her a little later. Joe told her we were a bit too busy to stop by for tea, and asked for nothing in return but that she help out the next person she finds needing help.

Oscar Wilde
We showed up at 5pm for our 6:30 boat, only to find out that it was 5 hours behind schedule. Five! We lined up with a handful of other bikers, noticing not only how clean they looked but how much stuff they were carrying. Hm.


We also pondered how Mr Wilde might have felt knowing that he had a discount-rate ferry named after him.

Red October
We excitedly boarded the ship, strapped our bikes in the hold, and were greeted by Second-mate Miroslaw. Oh, hello.

Designed to cart and entertain young families for 18 hours, the Oscar Wilde has numerous and varied restaurants and bars, all of which were manned by friendly Irish and east-Europeans, and yet are "entertained" by the worst music videos of the 1980s and 90s.

Most people on the boat stayed in cabins, but econo-travelers like ourselves found reserved seats on the top two decks. In a room that resembled a conference room, about 20 seats were arranged in pairs all facing the same wall. We found out later that only the very dedicated types actually use them, everyone else seeming to mutually agree to a huge slumber party, as bodies stretched out between the seats.

Lessons learned:

• get dramamine
• Irish accents make anyone cool, even 4 year olds.

Irish advice
Rolling off the deck and onto the green isle, our first act in Ireland was to investigate the our options at the train and ferry counters at the terminal.
The man at the train counter seemed surprised that we asked him about train schedules and prices.

"We want to do a circuit of Ireland around by the south, then come up by Limerick and then go on to Dublin, but we just want to check the price of train tickets from, say, Killarney to Dublin. You know, in case we get stuck."

He raised his eyebrows and dug into a pile of catalogues and papers for the list of tariffs.

"Oh," he said, eyes glued to the page. "It's expensive."

He stopped speaking. He didn't look up. We waited. What scale of expensive was he talking about, 30 euros or 200 euros?

"62 euros," he said. "Don't get stuck." His eye twinkled.

"Irish and English products, but with the euro!"

Stocking up at the first available grocery store, our eyes gleamed as we took in notably less expensive organic foods, brown soda bread, shelves and shelves of tea and biscuits, and cranberry juice. We had to hold ourselves back.

May I just say that brown soda bread is AMAZING. It's thick and chewy, kind of the texture of corn bread, but it's moist and filled with bran and is oh-my-fill-you-up delicious.

Great signs we've seen along the way:

Feeling breezy

We were wearing our street clothes as we biked off the boat, and I ripped my jeans on a bolt jutting out from under my bike seat. This is kind of frustrating, since I'm only carrying my bike shorts, a pair of running shorts, and my jeans.

Easier biking

The national road we started on was quite nice -- it had HUGE shoulders.

Harder biking

The regional roads are horrible for biking! Rough pavement to begin with, but then instead of a shoulder, they've planted neverending hedges of stinging nettle and prickly bushes.

Well, that's all I have time for today. Look forward to photos of our first days in Ireland (lovely people! brown bread! green scenery! border collies!) in the coming post!

-Hilary