Adventures in Europe: Galway to Dublin, Ireland by bicycle

I am in Ireland to do some cycling, but I began my morning in Dublin by once again attempting to find a rabies shot. I went to a travel vaccine clinic, and they referred me to the Cherry Orchard Hospital, but that is far from the city centre, and so instead I walked along the River Liffey to pick up my rental bike.

The owner of this bike shop is named Paul, and he has quite the place!

Once I was all set up, I loaded up the bike, checked out of my hotel and rode over to Dublin Heuston to catch the 11:35 to Galway.

Once in Galway, I began cycling back east, and I will write more about that on my Cycling Edmontonian blog. On Tuesday night I stayed in Athlone . . .

. . . and on Wednesday in Maynooth, just outside of Dublin.

Yesterday evening I called the Cherry Orchard Hospital, which is more or less on my way back into Dublin, and ended up speaking to Dr. Seamus O'Dea, who is apparently "the" rabies guy in all of Ireland. He told me to come by and he would get me a rabies shot. Finally, I felt like I had a confident plan to get the second shot after my May 27 dog bite; according to the doctor in Tajikistan, I should have got this shot on May 30, so I am a week late, but better late than never. 

It took me about an hour of riding this morning to get to the hospital, and I got there in perfect time for my 10:00 appointment. 

I spent an interesting twenty minutes with Dr. O'Dea, who has been doing rabies shots for over 40 years, at a clip of about 100 a year, he said, so that is a lot of experience! And this in a country that has been rabies free for 100 years! He told me he wanted me to restart my rabies shot schedule, since there had now been so many days between the first and the second shot, but unlike the doctor in Tajikistan, Dr. O'Dea said in the western world they have reduced the number of shots needed from six to four. Anyway, I will worry about the subsequent shots once I am home in Edmonton. Meanwhile, I got back on my bike and finished my ride, another hour roughly, into central Dublin.

I will not visit the Guinness factory this time (although I very much enjoyed my visit in 2018), but I did manage to snap a pic as I rode by.

To really complete my cycle trip "coast to coast," I rode into the Dublin port, before turning around back in to the city centre. 

I checked into my hotel, dropped off the bike, and tucked into a pub lunch and Guinness, a nice conclusion to a lovely three days of cycling!