Gone with the wind...

Well we are a bit wind blown today but having a great time on the island of Inis Mor! Our B&B is cute as ever and has a fantastic view of the ocean below. We rented bikes this morning at 10am and started our trek all over this 11km by 2km island. We turned the bikes in at 4pm with a lot more miles on them, and again, we hurt all over!! But at least we're working off all of our greasy Irish fare :)

Some highlights of the day: Biking to the far southern end of the island to find a small, deserted chapel ruin (St. Benen's). St. Benen was a disciple of St. Patrick who lived in the 5th century AD. The church was about 6ft by 10ft...I think humans are larger these days :) From this point of the island, high atop a hill, you can see both shores of Inis Mor. Pretty incredible.

We then biked to the northern side of the island, taking in the countless miles and mazes of rock walls, which the Aran Islands are famous for. We made our way to an old viking fort called Dun Aengus, which was built somewhere between 200BC and 400AD. We had another one of those "things that wouldn't fly in America" moments as we walked into the fort and found ourselves looking over a 250 foot cliff straight down into the turbulent atlantic. Yeah, not in America. Perhaps in other settings that cliff might not be daunting, but again, note the title. We weren't so interested in BEING that today. Most of the day the winds were 20-30mph nonstop, with gusts up to 50 or so, which meant that climbing to the edge of the cliffs with the wind at your back involved a G.I. Joe (or Jane) crawl to the edge to get a look down. The view down was pretty incredible--shortlived, but incredible.

It turns out that biking 7-8km into a direct headwind takes a while. There were downhill stretches that I couldn't believe I had to pedal to keep any kind of momentum going against the wind. But eventually we made it back and tonight we are enjoying some Irish music at one of the local hotels in town.

Tomorrow we are heading back to Galway and making our way along the western coast of Ireland to the Dingle peninsula. Should include a stop at the cliffs of Moher, so we'll see how that compares with todays adventures. Cheers!