Ireland day 1374. Thursday 03 July 2025- Rejoining

Today’s summary	Rejoined the gym in the morning. Spent 30 mins on the exercise bike (7km) and 30 mins swimming (1050m). Poached egg on toast for lunch then Val went on a run and I went to the Marina. We both got soaked in a sudden downpour. Later, we went on a stroll round the Demesne and watched Wimbledon in the evening. Finished off yesterday’s Thai takeaway for dinner.
Today’s weather	April showers! Bright sun interspersed with heavy downpours. Blustery west wind. Appx 19c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Merged Marina and Demesne

Commentary

After my recent adventures with hips and metals, I have decided that for the time being I need to scale back slightly the amount of hiking I do. But I don’t want this to be the start of a slippery slope to indolence, so have been casting around for alternative exercises that I can enjoy instead.

In the end, the answer was pretty obvious. For the first couple of years that we here here, I was a member of the “Arena” gym down at the Grand Hotel. I decided the simplest thing to do would be just to reactivate my membership, and make use of the hip-friendly exercise bike and swimming pool.

So, once morning cups of tea had been despatched, I wandered down to Arena, got changed, and headed into gym. As today was my first day there in a while, I decided not to be too ambitious and restrict myself just to the static bike and the pool. I spent half an hour on each – cycling 7km and then swimming 1050m. Nothing spectacular but a decent low impact work out and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Once I got back to the flat, we had a poached egg on toast by way of a brunch-type snack. The eggs came from the free range hens at the Airfield estate on Tuesday, and were very good.

Afterwards, Val joined the exercise merry-go-round and went on a run in the Demesne, rehearsing the Saturday Park Run route. I had a stroll round the Marina while she was pounding the pavements. Unfortunately, while we were both out, the heavens opened so when we got back to the flat, we were both soaked.

Once we’d dried out and I’d got my sweaty gym gear in the washing machine, we went on a short walk together round the Demesne. It’s still all set up for the concerts, though there’s only one left this season, which is tomorrow night.

Wimbledon was in full swing on the TV shortly after we got back to the flat, and provided our entertainment for much of the evening. For dinner, we finished off the Thai curry from yesterday washed down with the remains of a bottle of Rioja. Then eventually we drew the blinds on a relaxing yet stretching day, and went to bed. I think we both thoroughly enjoyed the whole day, from start to finish.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


There was quite a low tide today down at the Marina today..	..to the evident delight of the wading birds

Pretty wildflower bed alongside the perimeter path in the Demesne	Val surveying signs of concerts to come



Looking smug, as we shelter from the rain