Tuesday, May 29, 2007

vroom

'Twas a glorious summer day when we set out for Killarney in search of the fun and excitement promised by "Ireland Bike Week".
OK, perhaps "glorious" is a slight exaggeration but at least it wasn't raining.
Not yet, anyway.

We travelled for 6 hours, stopping once for breakfast and coffee, and three more times to stretch the cramps out of our bodies. I lost faith in the very clever SatNav thingy after it turned us off the main route and onto a smaller side road, then promptly started complaining about low battery power. Fortunately by the time it finally went kaput, we had alread started seeing signs for Killarney so no harm was done, despite the rather heavy showers and frigid temperatures* outside.

We then went to the Main Venue to check out the action...

Looks exciting, yes? So we ducked into a pub to get out of the rain...


Well the rain never really stopped, and we moved from one pub to another eventually, by which time I was tired of beer and had little inclination for anything stronger than coffee or coke** and by 11:30pm I was exhausted so hauled my brandy-and-coke-drinking husband back to the guesthouse, where I must say I had a really good night's sleep.

After a pretty good breakfast the next morning we set off on our return journey to Dublin. It was even colder and wetter than it had been the previous day. The tea and scones*** we had in Adare were probably the highlight of the trip.

Perhaps if we had arrived earlier we would have seen something more resembling a bike rally but as it was, well, there were a lot of bikes in Killarney this weekend and altogether way too much leather, denim and velcro for the comfort of the few middle-aged foreign tourists around, but nothing like what I had hoped for. I guess the weather didn't help.

So to summarise: We spent about 12 hours on the road to cover maybe 600km, to spend an afternoon and evening in a pub where I didn't really drink too much, and all I got for my efforts were aching joints and muscles.
On the other hand, I got to hug my hubby for 6 hours each way so it wasn't a complete loss..!
:-)

~~~

* About 10 degrees celsius was forecast for the weekend
** That's coca-cola, not cocaine!
*** Yeah, so much for the Big Bad Biker image

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

It certainly looks cold.

A morning of drinking doesn't sound too bad though. :)

Linda said...

I thought all big bad bikers had tea and scones. heehee :)

laurie said...

man, it does look cold! and much less dangerous than, say, sturgis. (where i have never been.)

the one time i was in killarney i got jumped on by a gigantic dog who loomed up out of nowhere and knocked the camera out of my hands and the back opened and the film went rolling down the street.

i'm beginning to think that killarney is a cursed town.

Anonymous said...

Tea and scones? Ah yes, pretty much the standard in Hells Angels circles.

Terri said...

Jason - Not to mention that the people-watching was excellent!

Beads - A surprising number of them do, LOL!

Laurie - Thanks for the link; now that's what I call a rally!

Kyknoord - Oh, were you there too..?
;)

Anonymous said...

10 degC and it was raining? For brief moment I thought you were back here in PE.

AngelConradie said...

it looks bloody freezing! so if you were feeling saddle sore after 6 hours- how on earth did you manage your euro-trip??!?
i should mail you some pics from the motorcycle toy run that my folks did. yup, my folks... sadly, not me...! one day...
anyhoo- it was hot as blazes and my folks actually bought bandanas at the rally 'coz they hadn't taken hats! i never thought i'd see my dad in a bandana! lol!

Kelly said...

Cool. I am tired just reading about it, you must be exahusted.

LiVEwiRe said...

If you are ever, EVER to make it as a big scary biker, you must stop clarifying that it was coca-cola! ;)

Terri said...

Chitty - LOL! Ja except it's SUMMER here.

Angel - The sore ass was a feature even after 2 weeks last year. Note to self: I really must finish writing up that trip report for my faithful bloggers!

Myutopia - Yep. In fact 5 days later I'm still exhausted. Neeeed sleeeep...

LiVEwIRe - Ah, I KNEW I was doing something wrong. Although I think this seriously reinforces the "Rebel Nerd" status awarded by Hubby a while back, dontcha think?!

Framesby 86 said...

It doesn't compare with the rallies you are used to does it??? I am trying to convince Mr B that we should go to one just to get away for a weekend seeing that there are so many now. Maybe the "giggle twak" was missing????