Using a bit of reverse psychology, a good day in Ireland is when it rains? A mile into my ride, I stripped off a layer of riding gear and laid on the sunscreen. Not as strenuous as yesterday, today's climbs went up a mile followed by long downhill descents, again and again. Made it to Letterkenny in just under four hours, pathetically slow. Summing it up, a roundabout at the top of one long climb was aptly named "Mountain top round-about". Pushed on to Derry where I packed it up for the day, forty-four miles. There was no formal border crossing into Northern Ireland; my only clue was when the speed limit changed from Kilometers to mph.
At first, Derry did not impress me. Rough looking blokes everwhere, even the two guys running the hostel. The location of the hostel is a half a block down from the Bastille looking police station, complete with high stone walls, razor wire and surveillance cameras everywhere. The hostel door was bordered by stores with steel nighttime window grates. All turned out well, the hostel is a nice place.
After settling in, I had my evening pint, a little to eat and headed for the city center. Checked out the town square complete with an old city seige wall which held the city from falling to the British during a one year seige in the mid 19th century. Derry has undergone substance revitalization, including beautiful a pedestrian bridge serpentining across the Foyle River. It connects the city with the British fort on the other side. Made for a good walk, giving me an idea of what the city is about. A bit rough around the edges but you can see a big effort is being made to attract tourism.
Tomorrows I had northeast to the coast where I will be looking for a camping site. I may even brave riding shorts.
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