I know we have a few people here who love a good cycle, especially with the prospect of pints.
The return of warm weather has me thinking about this but of course it's not likely to happen in 2021 at this stage.
I'm just conscious that the Greenway officially opened in March and runs from Longford (and Cloondara) to Maynooth.
An idea might be to hop on a train to Longford with bikes and start there by visiting St Mel's and perhaps a pub in town and then cycle to Ballymahon to visit Skelly's (if still going).
From there we could head to Mullingar as there is or was a few decent pubs there (research required). That's about half way so we could spend the night there in a B&B or hotel. Then set off the next morning for more or less a long cycle to Maynooth, perhaps stopping off at Enfield for a break, not sure if there's any decent beer spots between Mullingar and Maynooth, possibly somewhere in Kilcock. There's at least a pub at McNeads Bridge on the cycle route but might be too early for a pint?
From Maynooth, either hop on the train back to town or else continue the cycle. We can still cycle along the canal but it's not a cycle track the whole way between there and Castleknock but from Castleknock, it's fully tracked all the way past Croke Park pretty much to the convention centre. Porterhouse is on this route at Broombridge.
Another alternative is to cycle the old Lucan road from Maynooth and head to Rye River on the Lucan side of Celbridge.
It would have been great to be able to organise something this summer but of course, that was impossible with Covid.
Sure, the whole 130km could be done in a day without spending the night but why rush?
Anyway, something to think about for next year, a bit like the old Beoir camping weekends. Maybe we should start the Beoir Cycling Club and organise smaller trips as things open up.
