Maynooth to Dublin, Ireland

I rolled out of Maynooth at 8:52 this morning, with less than a half day of riding left to finish off crossing Ireland. I began again on the Royal Canal Way, which was a bit more rugged of a stretch than it had been yesterday.

After seven kilometres along the canal I had to leave it and cycle along roads.

Partly this was because I had to make a small detour to stop at the Cherry Grove Hospital to get a rabies shot (a story I have told on my traveling blog, anedmontonian.blogspot.ca).

After about 40 minutes at the hospital, I carried on further into Dublin . . .

. . . along the River Liffey and past the Guiness Factory . . .

. . . to the Dublin Port.

I stopped at the Irish Ferries terminal. I will travel from here over to Wales tomorrow as a foot passenger, and I might carry on cycling in Wales some time in the future, so this was a logical place to end. 

From Maynooth to here was just 28 kilometres, and took me 84 minutes.

I watched a ferry set off across the Irish Sea . . .

. . . before cycling back into the city centre, where I checked into my hotel, dropped the bike, and headed for some lunch.    

Athlone to Maynooth, Ireland

This morning I carried on out of Athlone and onto the "Old Rail Trail," part of the EuroVelo Route 2 (eventually EuroVelo Route 2 will reach Galway, but for now it ends/begins here). 

Hard to complain about a cycling route like this!

The weather was splendid, the trail quiet, wind was negligible and mostly Ireland is really flat, so it was easy to make decent time and enjoy myself.

After 43 kilometres, near Mulnigar, the Old Rail Trail joins the Royal Canal Way. 

The quality of this greenway is not quite as good as the Old Rail Trail, but it still makes for some great cycling, and is probably even more scenic!

I stopped in Mullingar for a hot lunch, which really hit the spot!

I did sixty more kilometres along the canal in the afternoon. There was a tiny bit of rain, but mostly the weather stayed great and I loved the peaceful scenery. 

Tonight I am staying just outside of Dublin in Maynooth. In all my ride was 106 kilometres and took me 4:49. I arrived at the Glenroyal Hotel before 17:00.

This is a very nice hotel, and right on the cycle route. 

I had a couple of Guinness and dinner at the local pub just a couple blocks away.

Maynooth to Ottawa, Ontario

Yesterday morning I drove from Maynooth into Ottawa, stopping in Eganville to get some laundry done and eat breakfast.

I am not really sure what this region of Ontario is called, but it was beautiful country to drive through early in the morning early in autumn.

This was my view from my breakfast restaurant, out over the Bonnechere River.

And this was an adorable poster hanging in the laundromat!

Since I am still thinking about how to eventually connect North Bay and Ottawa by bike, I crossed over into Quebec to see what the cycling would be like on that side of the Ottawa River.  Here is a map of the road trip I did between Friday and Saturday:

In Quebec they have been working on the "route verte" for decades, and they are obviously way, way ahead of Ontario when it comes to developing long distance cycling routes (which I already knew from living in Montreal in 2009-2011).

Obviously I cannot go the whole way between North Bay and Ottawa in Quebec, but I can do the last 100 kilometres or so that way.  I took some pictures of the trail.

I got to Ottawa early in the afternoon.  Because of the tornado that hit the city on Friday, power was out all over the place, such that traffic lights were down at many, many intersections downtown; so, traffic was chaos.  I eventually made my way to the Greyhound station, where I was able to buy a box for my bike (but had to pay cash, because their debit/credit machine was down due to the power loss).

Then I parked my Jeep as soon as I could, and took out my bike. Clearly, on a day like today, cycling was going to be a much faster way to get around than driving.  I stopped at the YMCA to shower, then headed down along the Rideau Canal to see the Edmonton Eskimos play the Ottawa Redblacks at TD Place.

TD Place is gorgeous, and it was a beautiful afternoon to be at a football game.

Unfortunately, the Eskimos lost.

I headed off on my bike back to the canal path.  

It was getting dark, obviously, but I biked down to the Ottawa river, and up to Parliament Hill before getting back to the Jeep.

This morning I started my day at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, just across from Parliament Hill.

After church, I got back on my bike to get a ride in before I fly back to Edmonton this evening.  I decided to cycle from downtown to the airport and back--mostly that is a nice route along the canal and Rideau River, but could possibly serve as part of my cross-Canada route as well (as in I could cycle from North Bay to the Ottawa airport instead of all the way downtown).  For my final day in Ontario I had great weather again, and I was very impressed with Ottawa's trail system.  I am still very disappointed I could not finish my route as planned, but my little ride this afternoon was a nice way to end my trip anyway.