Ireland

"Helen" writes:

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/tags/high-rider/
[...]
Insane... I'm getting dizzy just looking at the pictures.

It is literally 200-300 metres vertically down to the rocks there
and they are right at the edge--the photos are not lying.

The location regularly takes victims, unwilling as well as willing
(has done both sorts in the last few weeks).

But what I really cannot understand is why are they wearing
helmets.

Brendan
--
Brendan Halpin, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, Ireland
Tel: w +353-61-213147 f +353-61-202569 h +353-61-338562; Room F2-025 x 3147
http://www.ul.ie/sociology/brendan.halpin.html

Helen wrote:
On Feb 21, 8:41 pm, Tony Raven wrote:
Helen wrote on 21/02/2007 14:54 +0100:
Anyway, I just discovered you can get cheap train/ferry combo tickets
to Ireland and am now thinking about a few days over there instead.
Are you sure they are real? I tried to get them last year and found it
impossible. I spoke with the Man in Seat61 who has access to all the
ticketing information and found them very elusive.

I haven't called them yet but found the info on www.sailrail.co.uk via
seat61.com - I hope it's real otherwise I don't think I can afford the
separate fares...

The standard tickets (£25 each way or less from most of England and
Wales) are very easy to get.

The one problem is that if you go with Stena Line, the second sailing of
the day of the HSS from Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead arrives too late for
the last train, so you have to leave at 10:30ish, or, much worse, you
have to brave Irish Ferries.

I was sailing with Irish Ferries last month, and came into Dublin
Ferryport terminal 45 minutes before sailing, and there was a nice queue
of people checking in, and no sign of movement in the queue and no one
at the head of it, but a few blokes milling around looking at clipboards.

The queue disintegrated a bit, and there were only 30 or so people
milling about waiting for these blokes to do something. A couple of
people tried to get their attention made noises saying they'd like to
check in, and they were waved off with a kind of wait a while gesture.

I got near the front, and asked one of them directly: "Has this sailing
closed?", to which he was forced to answer no.

This meant that a couple of minutes later, me and one other person in
the queue were asked to pencil our names on the manifest and invited to
walk through to the vessel, which was full of the vehicle passengers.

All the others, I was told later by my brother who'd dropped me off,
were sent away saying they'd arrived too late.

Bunch of *******s.

But you can buy cigarettes for Cypriot prices on board. The downside is
that they pay their staff Cypriot wages.

Anyway, should you need to use them, you'll not need to go through the
passenger terminal except to get a boarding pass, and then you can ride
round onto the boat. It's good fun, and easy.

Especially if you go by Stena Line.

A

Brendan Halpin wrote on 21/02/2007 22:18 +0100:

But what I really cannot understand is why are they wearing
helmets.


Sponsorship

--
Tony

"...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate..."
Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 02:29:06 +1100, permajeo wrote:

If you can get there the Ring of Kerry, South West coast, is great.

Endorsed. The hills are on the steep side of steep though. Just north
of there The Burren in County Clare is completely fascinating for the
flora, and not quite so steep. B&Bs vary from wonderful to dire, and
it's impossible to work out which is which from the listings. The best
B&B I've ever stayed at is about 3 or 4 miles west of Kinsale, I don't
think I can remember the name, but I'm sure I can find map co-ordinates
(errr, if I can find the right map).


Mike

On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 02:29:06 +1100, permajeo wrote:

If you can get there the Ring of Kerry, South West coast, is great.

Endorsed. The hills are on the steep side of steep though. Just north
of there The Burren in County Clare is completely fascinating for the
flora, and not quite so steep. B&Bs vary from wonderful to dire, and
it's impossible to work out which is which from the listings. The best
B&B I've ever stayed at is about 3 or 4 miles west of Kinsale, I don't
think I can remember the name, but I'm sure I can find map co-ordinates
(errr, if I can find the right map).


Mike

On Wed, 21 Feb 2007 21:00:15 +0000
Don Whybrow wrote:

Helen wrote:
Hi folks

Anyway, I just discovered you can get cheap train/ferry combo
tickets to Ireland and am now thinking about a few days over there
instead. Can anybody recommend a good cycling area in Ireland? I'm
not afraid of a few hills, in fact would prefer scenic hilly stuff
to flats. I'm looking at 4-5 days.

FWIW, my first cycling trip to Ireland was the Fishguard-Rosslare ferry,
followed by cycling west along the coast. Very hilly, and very scenic.
Worth thinking about - and less touristy east of Cork.

You could give this a go ...

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/tags/high-rider/

Heh. Reminds me of my visit to Madiera. Though of course those
irish cliffs are tiny by comparison to an island that rises over
a mile high within less than two miles of the coast.

--
not me guv

Don Whybrow wrote:
Helen wrote:
Hi folks

I posted a couple of weeks ago asking for advice on touring in the
Channel islands in a couple of weeks - well, I've decided to put that
off for a couple of months since all the campsites and many of the
guesthouses and hotels are closed then, and the ferry to Alderney
doesn't start up until April (I wanted to go and visit the little
blonde hedgehogs

Anyway, I just discovered you can get cheap train/ferry combo tickets
to Ireland and am now thinking about a few days over there instead.
Can anybody recommend a good cycling area in Ireland? I'm not afraid
of a few hills, in fact would prefer scenic hilly stuff to flats. I'm
looking at 4-5 days.

You could give this a go ...

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/tags/high-rider/

... apparently taken here ...

http://www.cliffsofmoher.ie/TheCliffs.aspx

... by this lot ...

http://www.hansrey.com/past%20adventures/ireland.htm

Cliffs of Moher are wonderful. They're the tallest cliffs in Europe.
Yes, that does feel counter-intuitive.

Waterford (county and town) is also a very lovely place to visit.

Heck, every county has something wonderful to offer.

mark wrote:

When I went there in 2004 the ferries from Holyhead to Dublin were for
motor vehicles only, no foot passengers or bicycles. The Holyhead to Dun
Laoghaire route does take foot passengers and cyclists, and is a much
more pleasant place than Dublin Port, IMO. It's also that much closer to
good cycling in the Wicklow Hills.

Stena: Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire fast ferry (Stena Explorer)
Stena: Holyhead to Dublin slow ferry (Stena Adventurer - motor vehicles only)
Irish Ferries: Holyhead to Dublin fast ferry (Jonathan Swift)
Irish Ferries: Holyhead to Dublin slow ferry (Ulysses)

All take bikes apart from the Stena Adventurer, but both operators are heavily geared to
motor vehicles, the Stena FAQ doesn't even mention bikes.

Until recently, all Irish long-distance trains included a generator van with lots of
space for bikes, but several routes have been downgraded to railcars with no bike
capacity. Dublin to Galway is still OK, as is Dublin to Cork and Dublin to Tralee, but
most services to Sligo have no room for bikes. Trains from Dun Laoghaire are exclusively
DART units, which don't take bikes.

Unlike Britain, there is a charge for cycles.

Alan

Nick Kew wrote:

Heh. Reminds me of my visit to Madiera. Though of course those
irish cliffs are tiny by comparison to an island that rises over
a mile high within less than two miles of the coast.

shudder Have they made the runway any longer in the last 30 odd years?

Mind you, sliding down the hill on a sofa was good fun!

--
Don Whybrow

Sequi Bonum Non Time

Invalid thought detected. Close all mental processes and restart
body.

On Wed, 21 Feb 2007 22:18:06 +0000, Brendan Halpin
wrote:

"Helen" writes:

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/tags/high-rider/
[...]
Insane... I'm getting dizzy just looking at the pictures.

It is literally 200-300 metres vertically down to the rocks there
and they are right at the edge--the photos are not lying.

The location regularly takes victims, unwilling as well as willing
(has done both sorts in the last few weeks).

But what I really cannot understand is why are they wearing
helmets.

Rocks falling from above?

Seagulls sh*tting?