Day 5 - Naas to Clifden

Aladin arrived this morning and it is great to see him! He was packed and ready to go before I could get my tired butt out of bed and over to the motorcycle rental shop. We we on the road by late morning, making a beeline for Galway to ride the Connemara region, which Paul, the owner of Motorcycle Rental Ireland, says is the best motorcycling in the country.

Aladin and me (Aladin is the good-looking one on the left), posing with the bikes before leaving for the west coast of Ireland.

Wanting to cover some miles quickly, we rode hard for a few hours on the motorway to get to Galway as quickly as possible. Finally, around 3:30 pm we stopped for lunch, Aladin's first pub lunch since arriving in Ireland.

Aladin doing a little route planning during our lunch stop.

After a hearty Irish pub meal and we were back on the road, just in time to hit rush hour traffic in Galway...arrgh! Once we cleared the city, the riding was superb. We found some windy, scenic roads through a landscape that was dotted with lakes and marsh-like peat bogs. Ahead, toward the coast, we could see a beautiful range of mountains.

Our destination for the night was Clifden where, at the recommendation of Grace, the manager or the motorcycle rental shop, we had booked rooms at Abbeyglen Castle . The hotel did not disappoint although the opulence was probably wasted on two grungy bikers.

Aladin at Abbeyglen Castle. We had a wonderful meal and a great bottle of wine to celebrate the start of our short motorcycle trip together.