Day 13 Athlone to just south of Ballinasloe
40 km (T= 627 km 390 miles)
It was warm and sunny all day today. With temperatures in the mid 20s, that counts as a heat wave in these parts. The last time Ireland had such a nice June and July was in 1349, (but having to cope with the Black Death at the time took the edge off people’s enjoyment).
We actually cycled along a road through a peat bog today. Quintessentially Irish ☘. It conjures aged peasants with bent backs cutting out the peat for use in their mean wattle and daub dwellings to keep them going through the bleak midwinter. Nothing could be further from the truth. You can’t swing a leprechaun round here without hitting a large, beautifully decorated house, with immaculate lawn and two Mercedes convertibles in the driveway. I confess I thought that Ireland was the poor cousin of Western Europe, but it’s really not so. According to the IMF, they have the 5th highest per capita GDP in the world ($73,000), much higher than Canada ($48,000) or the UK ($43,000).
