Today is our last day of biking and it should be another rain-free day. Leaving the lodge at 9:30 AM we biked to Kylemore Abbey, which was built by William Henry as a castle in the 1870’s on 15,000 acres of land in the Connemara wilderness for his wife. It is now an abbey for the nuns of the Benedictine Order who purchased it in 1920 . The castle had its own hydroelectric generating plant built in 1893, a fire brigade , a small Gothic chapel, and a walled Victorian garden. The entire estate is gorgeous with great views of the lake and mountains. The garden contained not only many perennials along the walkway, but vegetables.
Leaving the Abbey, we biked to Renvyle House Hotel on the west coast of Ireland for a lunch of seafood chowder and sandwiches. The grounds contained a 9-hole golf course and a very nice herb garden. After lunch, we bike along the coastal route with views of the Atlantic and were accompanied by a very strong head wind. In fact, on one straight level stretch, I could bike no faster than 7 mi/hr. Although, I had planned to do the 12 mile land extension, which has to be a very hilly ride, I decided to forego the ride because of the strong wind. Instead I worked on the trip pictures and converted them into a PowerPoint presentation. We gathered before dinner to briefly talk about the highlights of the trip and enjoy a glass of champagne. Tomorrow morning we must be ready to leave on the bus at 7:00 AM to catch the 9:05 AM train in Galway for our trip to Dublin.
The trip certainly appeared to end too soon. We both biked the entire scheduled routes and saw a most beautiful area of Ireland with absolutely great trip guides and fun-loving fellow VBT travelers.
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