Journey on Two Wheels

If you are traveling to Ireland, it’s because you’ve been lured there by your soul or the Fates, seduced by the green countryside, the stories, the people, the human spirit, hardship, grit, laughs, and of course, Guinness. One does not go to Ireland to get somewhere else, but to arrive. Stepping onto this land is to awaken the Irish DNA that somehow seems to be in all of us, regardless of ancestry.

Ireland is a land of the senses. It seeps into you by walking on grass, peddling down back roads, feeling the mist in the air, being kissed by the warm sun, absorbing the endless green fields, and touching monoliths older than the pyramids or Stonehenge. It is here you can feel the sorrow, poverty, and generational scars of the potato famines, respect the hardship of the land, and admire the people who persevered even more.

These are the Irish themselves. They know you are here to become living witnesses to these fabled shores. This is no living museum – the entire country from Dublin to the hamlets to the Aran Islands are writing history in the future tense, while living in the present and guarding the past.

When my great-grandparents arrived in New York during the last of the famines, they passed down stories of the land they once called their home. The women were immigrants upon arriving in America and indentured servants. They were Americans, but always American Irish.

My son is adopted, and it turns out he is about 97.6 percent Irish. Though I had visited the country before, my wife and son had never been to Ireland. So, when he turned 18, it was time to make the pilgrimage as a family.

Now, we are intrepid, global travelers. Despite this, we’ve taken only one tour and gone on a few cruises throughout our lifetimes, particularly when our son was younger given cruising was the vacation of least resistance, but I’ve been to more than 120 countries

But to truly grasp and understand Ireland is not so easy. It’s allusive. It’s not like going to some of the great cities or regions of Europe. It’s about backroads and places not easily discovered on a map. The journey isabout being content with oneself – getting lost, stopping along the way, reveling in the moment, and thus discovering the people—The Irish—along the way.

And to my surprise, my wife suggested we take a bike tour of Ireland. We are not cyclists. We bike, on occasion, on flat land. Manhattan flat. Jersey Shore flat. Hilton Head Island flat. Flat flat. So, a bike tour in Ireland, racking up to 30 miles a day for a week with many hills seemed daunting as we reached an age where the government asks one to draw a clock that reads a quarter past ten during your physical, evoked doubt.

We turned to VBT Bicycling Vacations, a renowned and award-winning tour company based out of Vermont that offers cycling tours all over the world. Though my family is active and in good health,, it still seemed like a leap of faith. Then they educated us on e-bikes.

Electric bikes, or e-bikes, use a nearly silent electric motor to amplify riders’ pedaling power, which helps propel them up those challenging hills or extend the distances they can ride comfortably. Not motorbikes or mopeds, e-bikes provide a boost of power-on-demand while riders are pedaling, to complement their own propulsion and speed. Cyclists can choose from multiple levels of assistance—or no assistance at all.

Thankfully, what originally seemed impossible is now easily doable due to the technology of e-bikes. VBT’s introduction of e-bikes is the biggest game changer for people that want to be active or try something different (like a bike tour) but have hill anxiety and prefer a flat bike world.

So, we bought our padded bike seats and pants, gloves, some rain gear (it is Ireland, where you can experience all four seasons in a day after all) and took the leap.

We booked a seven-day itinerary including roundtrip airfare from the U.S. to Dublin, and then Cork. It would turn out to be one of the most memorable, and personally satisfying trips of our lives.

The seven-day adventure started in Cork which is famed for its street scenes, pubs, music, and of course, Blarney Castle and the famed stone located just outside the city. With a centrally located hotel, and an easily walkable city, it was a great start to rolling into vacation mode. We then rode via coach to Ennis, a delightful town of winding streets, great pubs, and even a fun public golf course. The chicken pot pie at the Old Ground Hotel was one of the best I’ve ever had, naturally complimented by a Guinness. It was here the group assembled and began the tour starting with energetic walks along the stunning Cliffs of Moher rising from the Atlantic Ocean.

It was in Lisdoonvarna where we learned to ride our e-bikes, and soon we were on our way down country roads, watching surfers riding waves in the Atlantic, and rolling off the miles along the wild and stunning coastline. Along the way were ruins of old abbeys and even thousands of years old monoliths. The peddling was easy and the e-bikes made light work of it, allowing us to absorb all that we experienced along the way at a leisurely pace.

VBT’s local guides eased us into the journey, fitting our bikes, and encouraging us on a few warmup rides. That late afternoon, we learned there was always a pint of Guinness or Irish whiskey if one wanted to toast the day and evening ahead. We stayed at the charming and peaceful Sheedy’s Country House Hotel, a place I would have never found on my own, even with all my travel experience.

Like I said, we are not really tour people. But our cycling group, who we lived with, ate with, and traveled with were intriguing and fascinating—and would be an element that created a truly positive and memorable experience. They were eclectic. One was a surgeon from Virginia, one a widow, a supermarket manager from Pennsylvania, a young dentist from Alaska, a couple whose husband was a former Navy SEAL, a public relations professional from New York, and so on. All different people from all walks of life. And the group bonded quickly, helping each other along the way and collectively pushing the boundaries of predictable and comfortable worlds. Some had never been on a bike tour, others (the older couple in their late 70s who could out bike us all) were doing four trips back-to-back and on their 17th VBT tour. Rather impressive.

The biggest surprise in Ireland was the food. This was no McCann’s or Blarney Stone on Manhattan. The food was exceptionally fresh, sophisticated, balanced, and delicious. For example, the menu at the Lough Inagh Lodge Hotel in Connemara featured Achill grown Pacific oysters and Guinness hot and lemon; roast duck breast with star anise and plum sauce, Killarney lobster, and Irish beef fillet steak with peppercorn sauce.

Of course, there was warm chocolate pudding with butterscotch sauce and vanilla ice cream, and panna cotta with fresh fig and port sauce, and local cheeses with crackers and fruit.

At the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis, one could find Asian style spiced pork belly and mixes leaves, couscous salad with Hoisin and sesame seed salad, roasted salmon with scallion mash, wild mushroom risotto, and roasted chicken supreme stuffed with pancetta, plus local cheese in a creamy wild mushroom sauce.

At every hotel, pub, and eatery, the food was nothing short of local, abundant, and excellent.

The following morning, we had a hearty breakfast and started out with the group on a route down country lanes and backroads, past old castles, ruins, endless rock walls covered in ivy and wildflowers, and onto the beguiling landscape called The Burren, a seemingly endless rock formation that juxtaposes the greenery of the land. It was here we met our first local expert (I’m always a bit wary of these parts of any trip) but he was truly captivating—almost part of the land—thanks to generations before him. We pushed off with a deeper understanding of the people and mysteries that swirl around Celtic Ireland. My wife and I were averaging around 25 to 30 miles a day at our pace and doing just fine thanks to the three “booster” speeds on our e-bikes. We also slept quite well!

The following day we peddled and explored ancient religious sites and ruins in the pastoral country sides of Carran and Kilfenora. We explored Neolithic tombs that cemented the ancient history of this place. We rolled into Galway on the West coast of Ireland overlooking the ocean and were greeted by a bustling, small city full of music, pubs, happy embracing people, and vibrant life. Our little, yet upscale hotel, was ideally situated for exploring the town on our own as much or as little as we wanted. In our case, this would be the one-half day of pouring rain, and, like the Irish, we were prepared. It made no difference—we learned you can have fun in the Irish rain (whiskey optional).

At this point in the journey the group became a bit tired. VBT obviously knew what they were doing, and we woke up and took a short ferry ride to truly remote Ireland, the Aran Islands, a mysterious, ancient stronghold boasting some of the finest prehistoric monuments in all of Europe, including the ancient Druid site of Dun Aenghus. With essentially one loop road, beaches, and the little town of Kilronan, the group biked or walked at their leisure and took time to relax., All could feel this location was a place in Ireland older than Ireland itself, full of mystery and myths. Our hotel, a series of small ultra-modern, semi-attached units or apartments with sweeping views of the seas, and an amazing restaurant, seemed to sum up the endless contradiction and juxtaposition that is Ireland.

By now we understood that while this was an active vacation, it was also a social vacation—one of chemistry, curiosity, new adventures, and learning that getting lost was how one discovered to be content with oneself (but there was relief when you found a fellow cyclist on the road after getting lost for a while). By the middle of the trip we had all learned that if we did straggle, or stop for one too many photos or a pint too many in the pub, our trusty VBT guides were always in a van ready to pick us up, or help us along the way.

The next day we ferried back to the mainland and rolled to Rossaveel and Connemara. This leisurely ride featured stunning scenery, the “Wild West” of Ireland, great pubs to relax and linger at, and a plethora of views of beaches, woodlands, farms, peat bogs, and even small mountains. The hotel on this night would be in the middle of nowhere, the Lough Inagh Lodge in Connemara—ancient and wonderful, with great food, a warm hearth, and the ideal view of lakes, mountains, and tranquility.

On the final day of our tour, where cycling was now a second thought, and preparing for sun, rain, warmth, and cool breezes an instinct, was perhaps the best ride of them all—a morning trip up to the impressive and intact Kylemore Abbey, on flower strewn backroads along the mesmerizing Renvyle Peninsula, and wonderful views, where crashing waves mingle with the beaches and coves along the coast.

We would return home via Dublin, an energetic and fabled city. What started out as a journey with an unease over the unknown ended with a sense of accomplishment, an understanding that seeing the world (or a little part of it) at 10 or 15 miles per hour allowed the senses to come alive. We grasped the true nature of Ireland—it’s people, culture, history, and mystery. The country had indeed seeped into our DNA, or in my case, reawakened it. One does not go to Ireland to get somewhere else, but to start the journey of a lifetime.

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Written by René Mack