Three euro ten cent and a hanky

Aka Now-we-are-Sixty-Six-part-2.  Part-1 cost me €3.95 (a coffee and a litre of water). Today's was for crisps and a Club Orange and a lost handkerchief. The travel was free, courtesy the Irish government and being of age. The goal was to explore the coastal rail route which was engineered by Brunel. The destination Rosslare Strand, where I stayed for about 30 minutes, long enough to photograph the strand and buy some crisps before boarding the return train. Had I stayed any longer it would have been back home at midnight.

The Irish Rail part

The route is double track from Dublin (Tara street) to Bray but slow going because we were sandwiched between a constant stream of DART trains that stop at every station. Single track after Bray and no other traffic but never faster than 70 mph.  The pictures are in reverse chronological order and can be enlarged by clicking on them. There are breathtaking sea and river valley views.

Around Bray Head

Sugar Loaf in the distance

Newcastle aerodrome (grass runway)

Fellow passengers nodding off

Wexford

The track runs between the coast road and a parking lot in Wexford town without any fence either side. Consequently there is a 5 mph speed limit and constant use of the horn. There have been bad accidents (see here or here) on this line but I couldn't find evidence of any in Wexford town, thankfully.

Rosslare Strand station

The branch line is goods only

Rosslare beach

Ferrycarrick hotel, our base in a previous post

Model animals opposite FerryCarrick hotel

River Slaney

Golfcourse near Woodenbridge, river Avonmore

Killiney

Dun Laoghaire harbour

Howth

Tara Street station

Killmore Quay with Ali

My last post was about when I was on my own - this one is about the together part of our trip to Kilmore Quay. And we enjoyed the battered cod so much we had it two nights running!

Salt and vinegar battered cod with chips and mushy peas

The quay

The ubiquitous cell-phone camera

entrenched at the easy end of Ballyteige Burrow

Lady Alison

  

Lady Alison

The quay to success

Tintin

Us dancing?

The harbour

Sea view from our bedroom window

Monkfish for Spain fishing vessel

Ballyteige Burrow

Ballyteige Burrow and Kilmore Quay

So Ali and I spent two nights at the Wooden House hotel in Kilmore Quay and I made good use of the time in sussing out Ballyteige Burrow which is the 9km long strand and dunes stretching to the west of Kilmore Quay. I made four forays and the track of my longest is below. The weather on our one full day was glorious, not so good the following day.

Longest foray 9.23 miles

The sea and the waves were wonderful and I took zillions of photos of which I share only a few. Most of the time I had the whole place to myself. The dunes had well worn tracks at the western end, but became overgrown with brambles further from civilisation: not so good on bare feet.

 ruins of the late Mag Redmond‟s cow shed?

Morning glory

The day after

Four peaks again

This time S and I took some visitors with us. It was the same route although I made the hike more accessible by ferrying them by car to the start and from the finish, reducing the hike to a total of 10.7 miles. We did well, no bones broken, all present and correct though tired, but there's a big difference between being on one's own (you can choose your own pace, and choose to take no backpack) and being with a group (you are sort of obliged to carry lunch and water and spare clothing for emergencies because.., and your pace is set by the weakest, so that S and I had to repeatedly stop and wait, getting cold in the process). And to add insult, before the hike I had run six miles first thing in the morning, and in addition the car was full so I had to bike to the start and run back from the finish. I was the only one bare foot. The others realised the benefit - their shoes were sodden - but steadfastly resisted.  Not that I would recommend a mountain for one's first encounter with no shoes.

Bruckner ninth Haitink

Good filming with lots of close-ups of the instruments and conductor, good sound quality, and totally mild-blowing, awesome content.

Fun in cathedrals

A full-size helta skelta in Norwich cathedral? Or a nine-hole crazy-golf course in Rochester cathedral? Whatever next?  Here at HH eyebrows are even sometimes raised when the kids charge around hollering in our humble meeting room.

Norwich cathedral

Rochester cathedral

I can well imagine some folk thinking this is blasphemy. I admit the attractions do appear somewhat out of place and I don't know whether to laugh or maintain a stiff upper lip. But perhaps that is the aim, because the ideas were evidently prompted by archbishop Justin Welby who advised his clergy:  "if you can't have fun in cathedrals then you're not doing your job properly".

When Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." you'll note that it wasn't his surroundings (a rock for a pillow) that made the place awful, but the presence of God. Without doubt the cathedrals were built to inspire awe but awe of what?

The old military road

My track

Lots of people away this weekend so no meeting. I might have, perhaps ought to have cycled to the coast, but was still feeling the after effects of my Carrauntoohil jaunt so... 47 miles, elevation gain 1102m (two long climbs), maximum speed 36 mph, average moving 11.8 mph.

My route: Blessington -> Manor Kilbride -> Sally Gap -> Old Military Road -> Laragh -> Wicklow Gap -> home.

I took some lunch with me - two eggs, and they were not hard boiled, in fact not cooked at all.