65 miles completed today from outside of Moskenes to Henningsvær! (Henningsvær is a bit off the intended trail, but the town was lovely and campsite is incredible. Plus (importantly) there are restaurants there and we were hungry!

The day started in a brisk wind. We made breakfast quickly, and were off by 8:30 on our way to Nusfjord. The biking  there was fairly simple, but everything here is always stunning.

A bridge we didn’t cross, but it still looks beautiful. There's a second in the background if you can see it!

The Nusfjord ferry was...interesting. It's the only ferry we had to pay for. (On all public Norweigan ferries, bikes are free.) It was run by two older gentleman that couldn't be younger than 70. Darragh and I sat on the deck while making the transit. I very much felt like Jack Ryan on  assignment on this boat.

The ferry went from Nusfjord to Ballstad for those following along at home.

From Ballstad we biked to Leknes, where we had a lovely lunch, and restocked for breakfast for tomorrow.

From Leknes we biked all the way to Henningsvær. The ride was stunning. I'll post some photos below, but it's hard to capture just how beautiful it is. It's almost a mix between highway 1 and  the Swiss Alps, with a bit of Tahiti in there. You're  right next to the ocean/fjords for most of the riding. But the scenery is very alpen, like a field at 8000'. Finally, every so often you pass a white sandy beach in perfectly clear water. It's absolutely stunning.

Taken of us by another cycle tourist!

I got some drone footage today,  but I’ll edit that and put that up later in the week  when we’re on the  bike less!

All along our route today we saw people bouldering and climbing. It looks like the climbing is amazing here and so is the bouldering! Next time we'll come back with coimbing gear!

We had a wuick but lovely dinner in Henningsvær. We both got a pizza :). And we're both now exhausted. Darragh is already asleep and I'm headed that way! We have one more long day in front of us to Stokmarknes tomorrow, and then we'll take a day off the say after to let our bodies recover!!

We are  in the bikes!  For  those keeping track at home, you might be  wondering  where days 27-30 are. Trust me, they’re coming! But we're skipping them for now as we hope to write daily  while  biking. They will still be uploaded.

Today started at the very authentic Best Western Plus. We loved our stay there. It was clean and the TV's supoorted chromecasts. Also, I was told that Rhi would love the bed setup.  King size bed with two duvets. We had a great sleep.

Our last real beds for a few days!

We had an early morning (with an included breakfast that was great) and made it to the Oslo Airport around 7:45, taking a bus from the hotel. It was easy and quick. There was a long line, but luckily we had "FastPass" which enabled us to skip the security line and breeze right through.

The  flight was uneventful, but the scenery was gorgeous. I understand why the Scandanavian people moved to Minnesota/the UP. It looks very similar.

View on the approach into Bodø

After landing in Bodø we took a bus into town, and went searching for our bikes. I assumed they’d be pretty easy to find, but they were not. They were supposed to be at the fancy ferry terminal, but i ended up asking around and walking around loading docks in a ship yard for 45 minutes until we found it. Ugh. But I also could’ve read the email "gooder", and  that would’ve solved many issues.

The bikes are great, and we repackaged everything out of our duffel bag into our panniers. (FYI, the north face duffels are very popular here.) Our last errands where to get the duffel bag + carry ons shipped to Tromsø (our final destination), get camping gas, and get food/water.

Loading the bikes! Bringing the duffel to town to ship it!

After a few missteps to the wrong stores due to bad advice from people, we finally found how we could ship the gear to the hotel. The worker at the Posten helped pack everything and gave me a deal. It cost only $21 (including buying boxes) to ship our gear to Tromsø. (FYI, it's pronounced "Trom" (like Tron with and m) - suh (rhymes kinda with duh). The english teachers out their can correct me on my phonetic spelling and any Norwegian out there can tell me how far off i am, but it's somewhat close.

We boarded our 4 hour ferry first, and grabbed window seats so we could see. There were cars from all over the EU boarding, so most be very touristy.

The ferry was packed! But it's free for pedistrians/bicyclists. So that was nice!

Darragh and I played cards on the ferry to pass the time, and Darragh slept while I looked out at the beautiful scenery.

The windows on the ferry weren't very clean.

We arrived in Moskenes. (Take a look at were it is on Google Maps, we're way above the Artic circle.  The views are stunning.

View off the bike path View along bike path

It's really hard to capture the beauty of what we're looking at, but we'll try tomorrow.

We had excellent italian food for dinner at a small place called Gadhus, (would recommebd it again, it was delicious), and the found the campground pictured above.

I'm writing this at 10:20PM, and it's bright outside. The sun will not set for 2 more hours! And then it's up again at 2:15AM. So lots of sunlight here :).

Our tent is flapping in the 20 mile an hour wind we're in right now (i hope that dies, it's a cold wind!) and i'm going to try my eye mask. I think Darragh is fast asleep already! So I'll attempt to do the same!

Veggie Meal Meat meal

Mark and I were glad to see the rain clear for our first day of bike riding. We had a lovely breakfast at Annie May’s before we hit the road for an hour’s drive to Kinsale, still in county Cork. Angela, who cooked us our breakfast was gruff at first but then warmed nicely to us. I misunderstood what she offered for breakfast and so when I asked her for no meat with my breakfast she scoffed, “Sure there’s no meat in a scrambled egg.” By the time we were leaving, Angela was trying to stage our exit so we didn’t get wet from rain. We arrived to Kinsale’s parking lot, where we were told our rented bikes would be locked and waiting for us. Wild Atlantic Way Bikes, the company we rented bikes from, is not opened on a Monday, so they dropped off our bikes in a parking lot. We took one look at them; they were rusted, old, deflated and neglected. When we turned around there was another set of bikes in much better condition and thankfully those were ours. Mark was ready to dismiss those rusty bikes and insist they were a hazard to ride. We adjusted our seats, packed our snacks and waters, and buckled our helmets. The mountain bikes served us well and were a very comfy ride. We climbed the road out of Kinsale and changed our bike route to safer roads, following Euro Velo 1, instead of the most direct route as it wasn’t the safest. Cars drive quickly and often there isn’t a shoulder on the road. We found the cars to be very responsible and respectful, but don’t mind taking the extra precaution. Euro Velo is a system of routes that is throughout most of the EU - highly recommend!

The route was so beautiful! Rolling hills, narrow roads, beautiful views of the Atlantic, old stone walls and well kept homes. We passed 14 barking doggies, stopped for two horses in a pasture, and saw 9,823 cows.

Newly ploughed fields! Fun school parking demarkation

We cycled for just under 5 hours and took a quick ferry across Passage West. The ferry comes every seven minutes (yes, the route is roughly 3 minutes across).

And then at half three we arrived to Ballymaloe. Ballymaloe, for those of you who don’t know it follow them on Instagram to always be hungry, is Ireland’s premier cookery school which also hosts a fine dining restaurant and 20 room inn.

We were greeted with a fresh slice of orange cake. Mark thought the cake was too dry (I didn’t) but we both agreed the cream was fresh and beautifully tasting.

Mark says "no, thanks" to tea and they think he's mad; rightfully so 

We then saw Mom lounging by the pool and Dad loading our bags from the car - life is good! We had a drink on Mom and Dad’s patio, surrounded by beautiful hydrangeas.

We sat in the Conservatory Room (a big green house) and discussed the recent Supreme Court rulings. At half 6, we were escorted into the dining room for our dinner. First course was a chicken broth, a tsasiki sauce or a savory sorbet accompanied by homemade sourdough and soda bread.

Second course I chose a vegetarian bhaji that was so tasty and the others had fish.

Our main course was either gnocchi, fish or lamb.

Then came a beautiful board of cheeses. Finally, the dessert trolly came around. The waiter explains each dessert to you, and you are encouraged to ask for a taste of each. Mark did that :). I had a beautiful homemade almond biscotti. We had fun cocktails, rose wine, and red wine.

This three hour dinner was such a treat. The dining room is a room in this old manor, the interior design is largely older comfort, but the walls have modern art. It’s a nice balance. After dinner, Mark and I walked the gardens and grounds, passed the beehives and climbed some trees. We were hungry and tired after our afternoon of biking. We were well fed and the beds and rooms were very comfy.

We landed in Shannon after a very uneventful plane ride, thankfully! Mark and I enjoyed watching some Fast & Furious on the flight over; cinematically it's way before before its time. Customs wasn’t too bad, and once we had our bags we were off to The Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs were beautiful and we had a nice hour hike on either side. We later learned from Claire & Jerry that the parking lot we parked in was highway robbery. Claire and Jerry were told of a cheaper option from their lovely BnB host (DM for intel). From the Cliffs, we headed out for Skibbereen in county Cork. The travel ended up being close to 4 hours on mostly back roads that were narrow and bumpy. We learned that all roads in Ireland start with one of four letters followed by a number. The letters are labeled from largest road to smallest: M (motorway), N (national), R (regional), and L (local). I was reminded that Bubs and I got lost on our way into Cork 10 years ago and the same happened to us this trip. Once from a wrong turn, and the other because Ireland’s president was in the area and we were rerouted. We had a good chuckle comparing the protocol for an American president. We got situated at our BnB in Skibbereen and had a drink in the BnB’s pub. We walked around town, found one other pub that had two lovely terriers out front and a big football match was on that had the bartenders very distracted from pulling pints. I had planned for us to go to Church Restaurant, which is in a building that used to be a church. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t have the restaurant’s current hours and they weren’t open on Sunday for dinner, along with the rest of Skibbereen. So we went back to Annie May’s BnB for a dinner, which was very lovely, much to our surprise. We struggled to stay up till half 7 in the evening and then retired. We fell asleep quickly and soundly but I was up from 2am to 5am, but then had a good couple of hours of sleep after that. The sun is up until 10pm and then again at 4am. The birds chirp slightly before sunrise. The rain plummeted down in the nighttime until the sun came up. It was cold and drizzly in the morning but then it cleared up.

Thinking, thinking, thinking First pint in the country!

Mark and I landed in JFK at midnight on Wednesday. Mark got a first class seat and I sat behind him in a Comfort+ row. He was very nice and treated me to some of his silver tray meal and healthy glass of Pinot. We waited for our bags and waited even longer for a Lyft as the traffic was unbelievable at 1AM. A quick ride to Sunnyside and straight to bed. Poor Mark's throat started hurting more, then the conjestion started, the nose running and the coughing. He was very excited about riding Lyft bikes to work and seeing his NYC coworkers but ended up working from home on Thursday and Friday, his final two days of work before his 9 week sabatical. I had a great breakfast with my cousin, John, in the city on Thursday morning and spent a few hours running errands in midtown. I had a few virtual Bellingham rental tours, but to no avail. We will wait until August to pick up the hunt again. I cycled to Eoghan's rock climbing gym and we had a great hour trying different bouldering routes and then finished it with a tasty Vietnamese dinner in Greenpoint, Brooklyn with all 5 Leddys and their 3 partners. On Friday, Mom and I had a lovely LIRR trip out to Nana and a delicious meal at Emma's restaurant. Afterwards, I had a nice visit with Mary, Charlie and Bonita. We met Sharon and Gerry, our longtime NY friends and previous neighbors, for a drink at The Globe and then dinner at Sole Luna with my godfather, Matty, and his wife, Mary. On Saturday, I headed into town once more for a brunch with my DA (high school) friends, Emilia and Alyssa. We dined at a fancy rooftop restaurant called RH on the lower west side. The weather in NY was hot and muggy for the three days we were there. No rain, but we missed a good few thunderstorms. Cormac graciously drove the four of us to JFK, for our international travel to begin. We are feeling very excited for our long summer and grateful that both sets of parents will be joining us in Ireland. While having a drink at JFK before our flight, Dad noticed liquid spewing from a plane's wing. We thought it was water. When we saw the speed of workers running to it, we knew it had to be fuel. We felt sorry for whoever's plane that was and knew they'd be delayed. We got up from the restaurant, ready to board, only to realize that was our plane!! Our gate had changed, unbeknownst to us. Two hours later we were on the plane, for hopefully an uneventful flight into Shannon!

Go Eoghan!