All the way round

So today was supposed to be a biking day. I got up and looked out the window and the rain was blowing sideways. I went back to sleep got up an hour later and it was still blowing a wet gale outside. We went down for breakfast hoping that things would settle down a bit. And it did, a bit.

Hal really wanted to bike around the Dingle peninsula--a circular route of about 50 km that passes by stunning scenery and historic sites from pagan times to the present.  So we put on our raincoats and took a chance. After all, our skin is waterproof, isn't it?

The loop follows Slea Head Drive right round the tip of the peninsula. Like all of Ireland, this place has been inhabited for many thousands of years. Many of the sites we passed had ruins from the 9th to 12th century on top of iron age ruins with stone age ruins nearby. We saw behive huts--igloos made of stone. We saw pre-Christian stones with ogham markings. We say rectangular stone huts, ring forts and early Christian churches built on top of pagan burial sites.  It's like an outdoor history museum.

The weather we had was typical of this area--a mix of mist driven by a 20 knot wind mixed with sun mixed with fog and clouds. It's like we got all four seasons in a 6 hour ride!  But it was awesome.

Biking is definitely a great way to see and experience the landscape (and weather) in a place like this.  After riding against a wet wind for an hour you have a much greater appreciation of what the folks who live here experience every day.  And I can't even imagine how those 6th century monks who built much of what we saw could even make a go of it.

After we finished the loop, we high-fived and got ice cream.