Two Bob Tourist

A land of notorious beauty and quaint places, and yes of rain, which it is why it us green and beautiful. It is also a land of charming people  when you get to understand what they are saying. I reckon Ireland is in good hands. I stayed with Michael and his three sons. All different and all super young men and all as different as the landscape. And each with an unpronounceable name. We went for a walk at dusk on what they call 'the bog'. A pear swamp in my terms but littered with evidence of past habitation. When times were tough a stone shelter on the peat bog was home. Not an easy life. So little wonder they move in large numbers to the US and other places. So I spent yesterday in the wet gear riding east in the drizzle. Sad to do it hidden in mist and all in a day but sitting in z Bush shelter is not an option and not sadly is a preferred but unacceptable option a glorious character filled Pub. No guessing the pictures the pipes that I enjoy so much and the other wh...

A chap that I met in Texas. He was and still is a bike mechanic, traveller and just the other day told me he was away on a trip for two months. Hank is a real biker.  I saw him go over the front of a Taxi in Mexico.  I determined that day I would buy a riding suit with padding because Hank got up, got on his bike and away we went. There were five of us. A rancher a dentist, a pilot, me and Hank. We set off from San Antonio straight into Mexico, aviding Mexico city. It was a very good ride through a wonderful countryside. Coffee all sorts of horticulture including miles of pineapples and of course cactus lots of cactus and the smell of grog in the valleys and villages was real. Very pleasant to ride in. The whole peninsula is very attractive from the active volcano the beaches the vegetation everywhere and the history, and that was a surprise.    The fact that there were pyramids in Mexico was not known to me previously. The Borders were a test of patience. They...

After I flew the bike to South America and got it shipped to Texas I realised I had the bug. It was not the bike  that was the meat s. So off the US. Started in Texas and rode to New Orleans and up the Mississippi, then via the Smokey Mountains to New York, Boston  to Canafa down the Hudson across to the Lakes then Minneapolis to the Bad Lands Calgary  to the coast and down thru Death Valley Grand Canyon Big Bend and back to San Antonio. I still like that city. And I was then incureable. So much so that when Hank said he and some mates were riding to Panama, how could I resist? That was a great introduction to another ancient society. Must be able to find a couple of good pictures to post.

I imagine England is easy to visit for expats. After all my Grandfather was born here educated here and only then did he get shipped to the Colonies with his family. Now of course we those descendants are only tolerated as short term visitors. That is not pleasant The great dilemma the world well Europe faces is the border breaking that is do widespread..when our forebears were taught to defend the borders and they did. Turn back or be shot. Foreigners were the enemy. With good reason our forebears suffered a great deal rebuild the nation they fought to protect and now it seems, for what. My question is, how do modern European society's survive. The plundering that made Spain Portugal Holland England and so on rich is no longer available. The industrial era has passed where there was work poorly paid but work and now we are taking in the neighbors washing and mowing their lawns for those people that either work in finance or the government. I simplify to make the point. Brex...

Here I am going on about Paris and I have not concluded London. Again I walked and gaped at the  buildings that are so distinct. It is a grand city to walk. I did have a beer in the Anchor where I worked so long ago. The ride to Paris is simple and easy on Eurostar. The bike is tucked away again and the memory of a really good ride to Scotland to visit the Orkney and Lewis was just great. Ireland in the north is pure joy. The people the roads the landscape I loved it. The south seems to be full of very noisy folk seeking their heritage. But the music was grand and I found a bit. So farewell Britain it will be fascinating to see what Brexit brings.

Had a great visit to Paris. Confused by the agglomeration of very loud very untidy dark skinned people at the Railway station but that is a fact of life. Paris is great. I walked I attended a concert in a church I travelled the metro and I enjoyed the food the wine and the place. It has a soul.

It would  be great if it were not for the travelling. I have had a healthy or unhealthy probably for airport personnel. How do airports find such unpleasant people. The alarm went off as I walked through the detector. Have you emptied your pockets he demanded? Maybe my knee replacement I offered. "I didn't ask you that...have you emptied your pockets"? Yes. So I got manhandled and when finished with no result I got a sideways nod. Unwarranted rudeness. I got a serve at Gold Coast for not saying I had a knee job ! So I sit and wait for my next flight to OZ.

I still feel at home here. My first job in London more than 50 years ago was at Tooley St. Then a commercial area with docks and I worked in a warehouse that unpacked NZ Butter from 56 lb boxes. Strong arm work. The butter was minced salt added and wrapped in 1 lb packs. I worked with “foreigners “ for the first time. They were from Cyprus both side of a divided nation and the racicsm was between them, the two sides of a divided country. Then I later worked at The Anchor on Bankside again by the market. The pub had a lot of history in several incarnations. Apparently owned by the Bishop who is reputed to have “smuggled” escapees from the Clink (in what is now Clink St) into the sewer and into the Thames. Once on the other side the Southwark Sherrif had no jurisdiction. Much later Dr Johnson was apparently under the romantic influence of Mrs Thrale. I doubt that romance was the source of the expression to be “enthralled”but fun to contemplate. My highlights were much different as ...

But sadly not. DO NOT VISIT THE SOUTH OF ENGLAND UNLESS YOU TAKE A TRUCKLOAD  OF CASH. A simple BnB no breakfast $200. ! What a disgrace really. So tourists and visitors send a message to the hospitality industry in the UK by not going there. I was warned that the smaller pubs say full when they are not to avoid hiring cleaners on piece rates and if that makes no sense it doesn’t go me either but tonight reception says yes and the “manager” on the phone says full ! Really. Go somewhere where they appreciate the visitors, in the north.

I often encounter the question no matter how expressed is why did you do this and where have you been. That is pretty easy. I started when I became overwhelmed by the immortality in the society I was living in. To say I was the only honest person I dealt with sounds pathetic but that's how it felt. And commerce has changed little since.  People that have taken "oaths" to act with honesty and integrity have abandoned such commitments. Sad but true. It is worth observing that society is a me first institution that we endure. Morality as it had been taught to me was no longer being practised then nor now. So instead of escaping on a boat for a weekend I was captured by an on line ad. Take a motorbike ride in South America and I was soon communicating with Skip Mascoro in Texas and shortly after I was reaffixing the front wheel to my BMW 650 Dakar in a customs shed in Santiago, and soon after that I was addicted. I rode a fair bit of that ride through Chile Argentine Bo...

It would be a pity to say it was a relief to say I was in Wales again..but the tourists in southern Ireland became too dominant. I was there 10 years ago before I rode from Norway overland to NZ even found the same pub that I visited and listened to the band.  But the music was terrific again especially the pipes, and the roads were special, as was the hospitality. Nice people. The less paint on the road the better for me and I found plenty of them. So a ride to Brecon as in the Becon Beacons was great. It included a visit to the cathedral which is a joy on it's own. A bit like staying with my friends Jane and Keith, the Commodore elect of the splendid little boat club at Neyland which is near Milford Haven. This lovely family makes me welcome when I visit and I treasure their friendship. Milford Haven is also where I go to eat fagotts a Welsh delicacy a bit reminiscent of small haggis and just as tasty. But today I was away toward Exeter. That requires a visit...

Tis a lovely place to be sure. But it rains. I had forgotten that I rode from Norway to New Zealand and only once had to shelter from rain. I rode into a bus shelter in the middle of Malaysia and watched the rain bouncing two feet off the road for 20 minutes maybe then rode on. So lucky I guess. But Ireland has narrow roads and big busses and lots of tourists. There is no place like it. Not NZ, not Norway and nowhere in Central America that I can think of. Not England and not Scotland so it is special. It is so good that I would love to join maybe half a dozen others and ride right round the country for fun. It is true they like music here. Last night tourist music but tonight I am told pure Irish. And yes they like pubs. I will attempt to attach some pictures.

A small town on a beautiful peninsula in  Ireland. Why would I expect it to not be tourist centered and full of those good folk from the US, escaping Trumptopia. The delightful thing that happened was that as I motored south right in the middle of nowhere was a lavish gateway heralding a Trump Holf Course. He is a hard person to exclude ! Ireland is really a picturesque  country. Possibly the most enjoyable biking country I have ridden in, and that is now a reasonable number.  If there is a downside it is Busses, the huge ridiculous monsters are everywhere unloading large numbers of people in a small village or a cafe. Or in a town like Dingle the main music pub of jam packed with people responding not to local music but is there anyone here from New York lots of clapping and woo hoos followed by a US song, and clapping along. Down the road a group of locals paying fiddle accordian ute are listened to by locals and bus drivers.. It's not all bad but it is sad. I ...

Westport is in Ireland. An File meaning the poet. The pub boasts local music so then the singer bursts into Goodmorning America I wonder what is happening. The radio and TV is full of some chump called Trump visiting and how all of Ireland will be protesting. Yawn yawn. It rained today. I had hoped it may not but hopes mean little don't they ! Ireland has a  beautiful coastline. It is clean, it is tidy and the houses are actually amazing. Westport defies the recession in retailing well it seems so. The shop windows are attractive and the pubs are plentiful.  On a plinth in the octagon is St Patrick but I nearly got caught out by the chap beside me in the street asking well you know who that is, of course its himself I responded to his great and apparent delight. Time I went to the pub and I was lucky to find a chap with a squeeze box and another with a guitar. That was good. Sorry picture on iPhone  so can't show. Bloody Apple.

Northern Ireland. Pleasant enough but time to move on. Had a grand brekky white pudding bacon eggs etc. My hostess was a delight and I was able to do a repair on a chair which was good. But time to roll through the county toward Skigo.  What a grand ride. Hills narrow lanes quaint villages. A good day on the bike ...which is better than most days anywhere else. Through the Iron Hills from Cavan and toward Sligo. What a delight. Proper farmland with0 trailer loads of sheep to the market. Down through farmland forests and people engaged on the land. Some terrific homesteads. Stopped at a roadside shop to spend s half hour with a rightful chap. Was I staying at the New Zealanders  house ? No. Do you know this fella who was in my street and did pretty well.  Of course I knew of him.. So we yearned away for a decent time. He taught me the difference between blackwood and white wood walking sticks. Handy to know that stuff of course. I got a snap of his shop. So I carr...