July 2, 2014
In To Galway
I thought it was raining on first waking up, but it was windborne sand raining on the fly-sheet. The wind isn't strong, just a stiff breeze rocking the tent and causing the long tufts of mountain grasses to wave back and fore rapidly. It has gotten rid of the midgets and coming from a south westerly direct, has brought with it thick grey cloud cover, floating low around the surrounding mountains.
Rejoining the road after the lift over the low fence, the computer shows I camped exactly three-hundred metres in along the track away from the road. I cower two kilometres into gusts to Maan Cross, then turn left back upon N59, for the remaining forty-one kilometres to Galway with gusts catching me side on anytime the road swings right. Though for the most part the wind is on my back and I reach the city at twelve thirty.
The main walking street is bustling and I slowly maneuver the bike round the many groups of tourists barely stepping forward with eyes looking anywhere but where they're going. All of the cafes are too full to consider entering to recharge the batteries. And there's the twang of a guitar player busking, which fades after I pass to be replaced by another further along. One playing a good rendition of Stairway To Heaven, one a Nirvana song. Then a group all in black, in robes, remaining so still as to appear as statues. At the end of the street are two real statues; two old men sitting on a bench discussing something, perhaps Mozart which a girl is playing on an electronic piano nearby.
I find a café with seating upstairs round the corner in a parallel street where I splash out on lunch. A thing called chicken gousions with salad and chips with a pot of tea. There isn't a power point to plug in, but there's enough power in the computer to spend an hour using the WiFi to upload my photos
I find a hostel through the tourist office. It is inside a commercial building round the corner from the big green in the centre. The interior is spacious and modern and once I've washed my cycling clothes in the washbasin and hung them to drip dry in the shower, I take a little time figuring out how to use the nice new Apple computers downstairs by reception. My first time not to use Windows. Behind reception the large common area has a wonderful mural on the wall, like the painting of the Last Supper.
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Today's ride: 47 km (29 miles)
Total: 625 km (388 miles)
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