ABC Wednesday!

I is for......

Ireland.

Just by the Giant's Causeway Ireland

When Irish eyes are smiling, 

sure, 'tis like the morn in Spring. 

In the lilt of Irish laughter 

you can hear the angels sing. 

When Irish hearts are happy, 

All the world seems bright and gay. 

and when Irish eyes are smiling, 

sure, they steal your heart away.

With Jon being self-employed we can not book holidays in advance, we are more spur of the moment travellers. So one day in May last year Jon found himself with a few clear days. It was a Monday lunchtime when Jon told me this. "Do you fancy going to Ireland? He asked me over lunch!This was completely out of the blue to me and a surprise. The North West 200 Motorbike Races were due to take place that weekend and we had always said we would like to go.

Neither of us had ever been to Ireland before so I said I would phone our friend Kenny. He was the authority on travelling to various places of interest, especially Bike events.

I phoned Kenny and asked him how we went about getting to Ireland, ferry ports etc etc.
It just so happened he had organised a trip for the very times we wanted to go...and somebody had dropped out! There was room for one bike and 2 passengers...everything was booked. The return ferry tickets and the bed and breakfast accomodation! "The only thing is Denise, you will be the only woman with 13 bikers!" Well, it is a tough life and we have to do these things, so we went along.

We set off on the Thursday for the ride up to Scotland and travelled over to Belfast.
We had 4 days in a heatwave! (remind me what they are!)



Returning home was a different matter. On the Sunday as we left Belfast, the skies looked black. As we drove off the ferry at Stranraer the heavens opened and we endured 4 hours of torrential rain, only stopping once for petrol. As I got back on the bike I asked Jon if he wanted a break but he said he didn't think he would be able to get his gloves back on if he took them off...so we pressed on!

When we reached Scotch Corner I started singing aloud on the back of the bike as I knew we were not far from home.

We arrived home around 7pm.
It took a week for our bike gear to dry out.
It is a wonderful feeling to arrive home, somehow manage to extract yourself from soaking bike gear, have a bath and put lovely dry clothes on!

It is part of biking!

We had a wonderful time with our pals, needless to say we had many laughs, lost directions and waiting for people!
The Irish people were so friendly and all in all one of the best holidays we had. We would like to return one day!

Next year we are going to the Isle of Man TT Races. It is our first visit but it is our 20th Wedding Anniversary and we wanted something special!

Here are just a few pictures to give ou an idea of the fun time we had.

This was race day. Ideal conditions.

Approaching Stranraer on our return! See the difference!

Thursday, meeting in the Carpark just before we set off!

Waiting to go on the ferry!

Michael Rutter poses with my duck!

We visited the Joey Dunlop Museum.
Here are some of his racing leathers.

Michael Rutter in action!